Only and Always
by WinterElle
Summary: Continuing story of Elena and Elijah following Dying to Live. AU Elejah
1. Chapter 1

Only and Always

_It's not like he can hide from me forever, _Elena thought as she crouched near the base of a tree. She watched sunlight that penetrated the forest cover above her play across the small yellow flower she had found. Here, on the forest floor, there was life, but it was mostly ferns and mushrooms that thrived best in dark places. Then came this one, small flower, poking up through the moisture to make use of what little light shined here for only probably an hour or two a day. _Life always found a way._ The thought made her smile.

The wind kicked up around her and her head came up sharply. _There._ There was the scent she'd been looking for when she got distracted by light and flowers. Taking note of the wind direction and the strength of the scent she knew so well, she took off like a shot, face to the wind. Clearing the tree line, she looked up at rocks jutting above her on the mountain. _Of course._ _She should've known. He had gone to their place._

She moved at her top speeds and the trees and landscape became a blur of light and dark around her as she moved. The scent buffeted around her with the wind, growing stronger with every gust.

Up the side of the mountain she came, her feet hardly touching the ground. As she reached the edge of a small butte, she saw him. He stood, feet firmly planted in front of a boulder the size of a small house, watching for her as the sun rose behind him. He gestured a challenge at her with both hands when he saw her, their understood "bring it" signal. A broad smile broke across her face and she pushed all her effort into her speed using all of her strength, all of her will, to move faster still.

So, Elijah stood, planted with all his might and Elena came, with all of her speed. Unstoppable force, immovable object. _Their favorite game._

Elena didn't stop, didn't even slow as she approached, but stretched her strides far and, at the last second, threw herself into him wrapping her arms around his waist. Elijah didn't budge when she struck him for a quarter second before his body folded automatically around her, protecting her instinctively from the impact.

The force of the collision sent a ripple of power around them in waves that travelled down the mountain and away. The ground and trees shook with the waves and the mountain rang like a bell around them. They rolled together into the boulder that was pushed up on its furthest corner before it toppled back into place. The two of them laughed together until their sides ached, the simple joy of their game and in each other shining between them.

Elena sat up and brushed dust off the shoulder of his black shirt.

"I nearly had you that time." She grinned and kissed the tip of his nose.

"Maybe next time, little girl." His smile was wide and proud at how strong she had become in such a short time. She was right, she had nearly thrown him off his feet. _But only nearly._

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Stefan, feeling generous, reached for a glass and poured, hearing his brother's rustling several rooms away. Two ice cubes and three fingers of bourbon. Damon's daily kick start and breakfast of champions. He left it sitting on the corner of the black marble topped counter.

Damon was wandering down the hall when he felt the floor ripple under him. His drink, waiting on the corner, shook in the glass. His eyes rolled in irritation.

Stefan, cup of hot coffee in hand, halted in the hallway, frozen for a second as the floor rolled beneath them and dishes rattled behind closed cabinet doors.

"What do you think? Three point six, maybe?"

"Nah, that's a four on the Richter scale, easy." Damon emptied his glass and wished it was bigger as he shook the lonely ice cubes around. "First thing in the morning too." _So. Annoying._

"What do you think they _do_ up there?" Stefan mumbled as he stood at the kitchen window, staring out at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Damon made a mock heaving sound and put one hand over his mouth while raising the other to stop Stefan's words. "Let's not go there. More than I can stomach first thing in the morning."

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Elijah had been teaching Elena about tracking. She chased him across rivers and mountains searching for his scent in the winds. His was a natural skill that she would probably never match, but there were some pieces of it she could learn. Over time she had become proficient, at least.

With this in mind, Elena automatically tipped her head up as a new scent assailed them. Elijah's body drew tight as he stood warily, walking slowly and protectively around her. From the same edge of the butte she had just ascended, another figure slowly strutted into view. The sound of slow, sardonic clapping filled the air.

Elena gasped. The scent was familiar. Now she understood why.

"What exactly is it you want?" Elijah called to the figure, gathering Elena behind him, blocking her with his body.

"Just to congratulate you on finally getting one of them for yourself, brother." Klaus stopped his approach a hundred yards away, folding his arms across his chest. "You always did covet the dopplegangers, did you not?"

Klaus appeared to materialize behind them both, standing close enough to Elena to draw in the scent of her hair. Hard blue eyes roved over her and his lips twisted upward in a smirk.

Watching Klaus rake his eyes over Elena, as Elijah had seen him do to so many women over so many years, the tight control he lived within every day wavered. He knew what that look meant, where it led and fury boiled under his skin. He moved in just as swiftly as Klaus had and swung his hard white knuckled fist, making solid bone crushing contact with Klaus' jaw. His brother slid back a dozen steps but remained standing, rubbing his jaw in genuine surprise.

Klaus' laughter and the broad smile he wore were real. He wiped a bit of blood from his mouth and licked his finger thoughtfully.

"Not nearly as civil", he said the word with a sneer that flashed bloody teeth at Elijah, "as you once were, are you?"

"Elena is _my wife_, Klaus." His voice was tight.

Klaus strolled away a few steps and back again. He crossed his arms, hard blue eyes whipping angrily over his brother's face as the wind moving over the mountain lashed his blonde hair back from his face. "Yes. Yes. I had heard that. Had to come see it for myself."

Klaus appeared again at Elena's elbow. "Interesting changes you have wrought in my brother. But it has been awhile since the nuptials. I have heard that interest eventually…" He drug the word out, lashing Elijah with an openly disdainful look, one brow up, "wanes."

He leaned close to her ear. "Bored yet?" He whispered.

"Enough!" Elijah roared, moving in to swing at him again. Klaus understood fists and blood, so Elijah would speak his language. But Klaus evaded him, stepping quickly and calmly away. Silently he moved toward the edge of the cliff he'd ascended only moments before, headed back the way he came.

Without turning back to look at either of them, he spoke into the wind. His voice pitched low and seductive. "When the boredom gets too much for you _little sister_, and _it will_…come look for me. We will make things interesting again." His laughter followed him down the mountain as he stepped off the cliff and disappeared into the landscape below.

Elena followed Elijah and took his hand, leading him away from the cliff he'd very nearly went down after his brother in a storm of fury at that parting shot. Only recognizing it as an old ploy of Klaus' and knowing he would've doubled back to have Elena alone had stopped Elijah from going after him with murder in his heart.

She wove their fingers together, hoping to calm him.

"I don't know what all of that was about, Elijah." She stopped and looked into his eyes. "And you don't have to tell me." Elena had come to love and accept what he shared and what he didn't. As he said all those years ago, some of it didn't bear remembering much less repeating.

Because he still looked so angry, she stopped and wrapped her arms around him, her face tilted up.

"But you hear me, husband." She never called him that, so the title brought his eyes down to meet hers. "If it ever occurs to you, for even a second that I might ever…ever…ever take him up on that offer," A shudder of revulsion tore through her, unscripted and unintentional. "You and I are gonna tangle over it. Just so you know."

Elijah sputtered for a second, wavering between lingering fury with Klaus and being disarmed by Elena's pluck. Adding to that the disgusted expression she wore when speaking about his brother, it was more than he could stand. He tipped his head back and laughed.

Elijah had seen his brother flash only a smile and find company for the night. Klaus had spent centuries honing his own brand of charm. Elijah had seen very few refuse him. But his Elena was anything but typical. That shudder of disgust had sealed it.

She only felt that level of revulsion for spiders…._which seemed appropriate actually_. He'd grown quiet and laughed again as it occurred to him. She had stepped around him, wiping more dust from his shoulders. He reached out and gathered Elena to him.

"I love you." He leaned down and whispered the words into her hair, all of the tenderness he felt in his tone.

"I love you, back." She told him, wrapping her small arms around his neck. "You. Only and always."

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Elena stood at a large window, staring out with unseeing eyes. The confrontation from earlier ran through her mind. Thinking of the people she loved and all the damage Klaus could do, she reached for her phone.

After only two rings, Damon's voice answered.

"Hello, Elena." She could hear the smile in his voice.

"Good morning. We just got back."

"The dishes in my kitchen would beg to differ." Damon pointed out, sounding faintly annoyed. She grinned. Their game at sunrise. She'd almost forgotten.

"Yeah, sorry about that." She told him, trying to sound contrite.

He laughed at her halfhearted apology. "No, you're not. But I'll forgive you anyway."

"Something happened this morning."

Damon laughed again. "Didn't we just cover that?"

"No, I'm serious. It was Klaus."

"Ah, hell. You're ok?"

"Yeah, we're fine. I just thought you should know. Spread it around, will you? No sense in anyone getting caught off guard by him." She shrugged to herself as she went on. "It might be nothing. He might already be gone even, but he's dangerous and neither of us trust him. So just be aware."

"On it. Thanks." Damon disconnected the line, his voice tight with strain.

Klaus had caused a lot of heart ache and drama once before. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that again. They couldn't just eliminate the problem because, for one, he was still Elijah's brother and two, whole bloodlines of their kind might come to an end if Klaus, as one of the first, met with a much deserved end.

Elena hung up and went to sit quietly in her own garden for the first time in many weeks. They could stay gone, moving forever if they really wanted to, she thought. But they wouldn't, because that would really just be running away. Elijah would never do that.

The two of them, over fifteen years of marriage, had become partners in all things. Elena, freed from the constraints of her writing, had moved into travelling with Elijah and lending a hand where she could with the business he had started decades before she was born.

Elijah had quietly built an empire offering a specialized service that had become popular with their kind.

He opened small private donation centers in college towns all over the country. These centers paid college students, and anyone else really, a handsome fee for blood donations. The blood was then processed. Some of it was separated into whole blood and plasma and sold to research centers or companies that developed chemotherapy drugs. A larger portion was quietly set aside for distribution, not to hospitals, like public companies did, but rather, to individuals instead.

She learned that Elijah knew many of his kind worldwide who preferred to keep their appetites quiet just as he did. So he had teams for private shipping that would allow the blood to be delivered, stored and maintained in their homes for a price. The service prevented open hunting that might draw unwanted attention and allowed those who were like him to live their lives quietly, never harming anyone.

Many of Elena's friends had become his customers, actually, a decade before she even knew what kind of business he did.

Much of the travel he did was for the sole purpose of resolving problems that might arise. She was proud to be part of it and had become pivotal in that role along with him. She had a gift for troubleshooting and what Elijah liked to call "people skills".

"You're far away." Elijah crouched beside her. He was right. She hadn't even noticed his approach. At least she didn't jump out of her skin when he did that anymore.

She turned a small smile on him. "I've been thinking about this morning."

"I thought so." He gathered her up in his arms and set them both together on what had been her seat. She was draped now across his lap wrapped in his arms. Resting her forehead into the curve of his neck, she breathed him in, relaxing finally.

"Tell me." She felt the rumble of his words through his chest.

"He was a little right. That bothers me." She felt him tense around her, headed down a dark path of misunderstanding they had been down before. Elena laid an open palm on the black shirt he still wore from this morning.

"No. That's not what I mean." She moved a little closer, her mouth near his throat and admitted what was really troubling her.

"What he said about how you've changed. How I've changed you." She felt him relaxing around her again. She had been thinking of the person he was when they first met, one who would never have considered taking a swing at his brother for anything. He remained cool and detached in her memory for the first several years that she knew him. But now, he was more open, but also more rash. Had she been a bad influence on him? Changed him somehow without meaning to? She loved that sweet civil man he had been just as much as she loved the quietly passionate man he was today.

He drew a deep breath before he said, "I've always been who I am now. The same passions, the same furies. You just freed me, little one."

"So you're not so tightly bound, anymore?"

"Just tightly bound to you." Elijah leaned down then and kissed her. A moment later he stood and carried her inside and reminded her of the value of quiet passions.


	2. Chapter 2

Elijah's eyes moved over her, studying the smooth skin, the angle of the dark lashes that trailed across her cheeks. He spent many of his nights there, in the silence, watching her breathe while she slept. Something about the rhythm of her chest rising and falling was a comfort in itself.

So many years, so much time and heartache had been spent in bringing him to this peaceful stillness with her. She made him feel like a battle weary soldier, finally home from a very long, very bloody war.

Only his battles had raged for lifetimes, and yes, there had been blood. Rivers of it.

Seeing Klaus had rattled him, right to his foundations. Echoes of the clash of metal, the sound of death cries became louder in his ears on seeing Klaus' face. Much energy was spent by him tamping down the past so that he could lose himself peace. In the quiet, though, if Elijah stayed still too long, the memories overtook him like a flood, reminding him of the fraud he was.

A man of peace. This was how she saw him. _This_ was the man Elena loved. She loved someone who made it possible for others like them to thrive without violence or victims.

She didn't question where he had come from or what he might've been before now, when peace impossible and every meal brought pain at best, death at worst.

Elijah had raged in battles for generations before she was born. He had rained down fire and fury on strongholds, fields, villages and anyone that dared stand in his way. The countless faces of the dead and the dying swirled together in his memory, lost in anonymity and time.

The horrors could be set aside, forgotten, in the peacefulness of their daily life together. The nights, though, brought memories to sometimes steal his rest, but that was all.

Then, along came Klaus to remind him, to bring those horrors to the stark light of day. Nearly twenty years of silence between them. Now Klaus had returned to ring the bells of remembrance for Elijah. The one person who had witnessed it all, every horror and atrocity, had stepped onto that mountain and all that Elijah had built felt like it tumbled like a house of cards.

A soft sigh from her brought his eyes up to meet warm chocolate depths that studied him. Elena reached a small arm up as she rolled gently into him. One small hand moved across his back, trailing slowly up his spine from his waist to the base of his neck, making his eyes close as sensation spread through him.

"You're not sleeping again?" She asked it against his jaw, the huskiness of her voice only a whisper.

He shook his head, wrapping arms around and drawing her close.

"It doesn't matter." He told her, but he was glad she was awake again. He didn't actually need sleep. Neither of them did. But it was a luxury he would never purposely take from her.

Her hand continued to move over his back and was joined by another one. He sighed in spite of himself. One of her small hands moved up to press his head to her shoulder as she rolled to her back and he relaxed against her. Without another thought, peace prevailed as he draped one arm over her and was swallowed by oblivion.

At sunset the following evening Elena stepped out of her home and felt the weight of eyes on the back of her neck. She walked calmly to her car and the prickling sensation never left her as she drove. It lingered as she closed her car door after navigating it into town and to a space at the public park.

_Someone was watching her. _

She kept her movements slow and steady as she wandered down a tree lined path and sat on a wood and wrought iron park bench beneath an ancient tree.

Quietly she drew in the scents around her and found nothing alarming, but that could be as simple as staying downwind. She knew because she'd pulled that trick herself a time or two.

Calmly she cast her eyes around her at the deepening shadows.

Without flourish or preamble, Klaus appeared seated at the opposite end of the bench she had chosen. He wore jeans and a chambray shirt. Without looking at her, he leaned back, making himself comfortable. He crossed one leg over the other, hooking clasped hands over a knee.

"I think you're the one who's bored." She said it without looking at him, still gazing into the shadows and showing no sign of surprise at his appearing.

He chuckled, also not turning to look at her.

"I think you see more clearly than _your husband_." At his reference to Elijah, his voice pitched low and scornful.

"Why do you hate him?" Elena kept her tone low and conversational.

Klaus turned to look at her, his blue eyes wide. "Hate him?" He laughed again. "He is my brother. There is no hate."

"Jealousy, then?" She suggested.

He turned and looked away again, appearing to grow thoughtful.

"Perhaps." Klaus answered.

He sat up, turning to run his eyes over her. Gone was the suggestive expression he had used on the mountain. Elena was beginning to suspect that had all been for Elijah's benefit, to get a rise out of him. She met his gaze and saw speculation there.

"Whatever you want from me, know that I won't betray him. I won't negotiate with you or do anything that would cause him pain." She crossed her arms over her chest as she spoke.

"I assume you love my brother, then." Klaus shifted, turning on the bench to face her, draping one arm over the back of the seat.

"Very much." Was her immediate answer.

"You must tell me. When Elijah and I first came here, years ago, did you love him even then?" Elena turned too, then, shifting in the seat to face him directly at what felt like a strange question, her brows up.

"I only ask because _we_ do not, usually, garner such heartfelt loyalty."

"And you want to know how he pulled that off." She finished his thought. He nodded, his expression genuine.

Elena decided then to be honest, because Klaus at least appeared to be.

She looked away, drawing on the memory of the first time she saw Elijah. Her breathlessness as he appeared, his eyes wide as they moved over her and the feel of the air moving around them because he'd moved so quickly. The way she was drawn to stillness whenever he was near, back then, not from fear, but fascination.

"I did love him. Yes. Although I was too young at the time to understand myself."

He was silent for a few seconds, seeming to absorb that.

"You said you will not negotiate with me." Klaus shifted, searching her face. "Even to protect your friends?"

Elena blinked. Her brown eyes turned instantly to red, the dark spread of veins moved over her brows and cheek bones as swiftly as fury moved over her. In one lithe move, she stood and lifted the bench he sat on with one hand and swung it at the tree behind them.

The crashing sound of breaking boards and groaning tree limbs split the silence.

Klaus had soundlessly vaulted out of the way. He stood a few yards away, blue eyes wide with shock at what she'd done; at her strength and speed.

Through gritted teeth, she answered him. "Those 'friends' you refer to aren't friends at all. They are our family." She closed the distance between them in a blink, furious red eyes meeting widening blue ones. "If you hurt any one of them, we will make you wish you had never been born."

She turned her back to him, knowing he would see it as an insult.

"Because, let's be honest, ending your life, at this point, would be a gift. And I'm not feeling particularly generous." It was her own parting shot, as he had done to them on the mountain. She walked calmly back to her car and it appeared Klaus didn't follow, but she couldn't be sure because she refused to look back.

A few hours later, Elijah drew a deep breath, his mind spinning through what Elena had to say about her confrontation with Klaus in the park as questions and answers slotted into place.

From what she described, and what he knew about his brother, it appeared he was fact finding at the moment – something that had been Elijah's role for a very long time on Klaus' behalf. Right now Klaus was gathering information and forming strategy. This, Elijah felt sure, was how she had walked away unscathed. Klaus now knew something of what she was capable of. Elijah couldn't help but quietly mourn the fact that the element of surprise in that regard, was lost to them.

The conversation she had with Klaus did surprise Elijah, though. Klaus' focus appeared to be on their relationship. Since none of his family had married after the curse until Elijah did, that might be the explanation. But her suggestion that Klaus was unsatisfied hadn't been met with a denial. Elijah found that curious. Klaus' usual arrogance seemed to be absent from the conversation.

Elijah did point out to that, although she had lost her temper when Klaus mentioned her family, he didn't actually threaten them. He only asked if she would be willing to betray Elijah for their benefit. He'd been testing the boundaries of her loyalty and found there were none. Elena's answer had been a violent and a bone chilling threat.

Elijah wouldn't let her see how much her answer for Klaus pleased him for fear she'd do it again. But he would've liked very much to see the look on his brother's face in that moment with his own eyes. Klaus really had no idea who he was dealing with when he'd followed her to the park tonight.

"I do have to ask you a question, Elena." Elijah turned from the fire he'd been staring into so he could see her expressions when he asked it. "Are you purposely _trying_ to get hurt or killed?" The last whisper of Klaus' suggestion that she was 'bored' echoed in his mind.

"Of course not." Her brown eyes had widened at the question, her mouth slack for a second before she answered.

"Then I will need for you not to do anything like that again. He will be stronger than you are, little one. Faster, more calculating, and more unpredictable." _In a word, Klaus was deadly._

The memory of what it felt like to lose her drove him to speak. He would not lose her again. Not now. Not ever.

Elena nodded quietly, understanding what he meant and accepting the truth of it. She already knew a little of what Klaus was willing to do to accomplish his goals, whatever they might be. Elijah was right. She always did hate it when he was right.

The sound of Elena's cellphone broke the silence. After a quick glance at the screen, she moved quickly to answer.

"Jack?"

His deep voice sounded strained and tight over the line.

"Elena. There's been an accident." White fingers wrapped around her phone and she put it on speaker so that Elijah could hear.

"Is Milla alright?" Milla was sixteen now and driving the last time Elena had been to New Mexico to celebrate her birthday.

Jack let out a ragged sigh and Elena's stomach twisted. "I wish I knew. We can't find her. I've had every tracker we own on it for hours. She disappeared from the crash site. Her best friend, Emma, is gone." Jack's voice became a strangled gasp over the last word. Elena remembered her. Pretty blonde girl with bright green eyes and glasses. 'Gone.' Milla's best friend was dead.

"Milla was driving."

Elena sat down in a rush, her legs refusing to support her. _Oh, honey_, she thought, her bright, beautiful god daughter. _Her best friend was dead and Milla would blame herself._

Jack gasped for a few seconds before he spoke again. "Something's wrong, Elena. And if we can't track her, you might be the only one who can."

He was referring to her 'hobby' as a tracker that she'd threatened him with the night they met. She'd promised that since she had his scent, she could track him to the ends of the earth if she had to. At the time it had been only a bluff. But things were different now. With Elijah training her with every spare moment between them for the last seven years, she could track a falcon on a cloudy day now.

"Please. Come." Elena could hear the desperation in her friend's voice. _Of course she would come. _

She promised Jack she'd call him back when her arrangements were made.

Elijah paced back and forth in front of the fire, his hands gesturing rapidly as he talked. Elena wanted to go, but all Elijah could see was risks and danger.

"I understand how important Milla and Jack are, and I agree with you, of course. But with everything else happening, this is a terrible time and a bad idea. They'll find her. A _pack of wolves_, of _course_ they'll find her. Jack is just in _a panic_ right now." He drew a deep breath and Elena could see he was gathering steam.

"We still have Klaus lurking somewhere, planning. If we leave and something should go wrong, who'll be able to stand against him? Protect our home and our family?"

"You can." Elena pointed out quietly. She was sitting staring into the fire. "I'll go alone. I'll find her, make sure she's ok and be back in a day or two." _Or four_, she amended silently. Milla would need her right now and she _wasn't_ going to fail her.

"I'm not sending you off all on your own, Elena. It's just too dangerous right now." Elijah crossed his arms, his signal that his mind was officially made up.

"Fine. I won't _go_ alone. I'll take Damon." Elijah's mouth opened and closed again. He drew a deep breath while his mind worked through options that might end this conversation and keep her home where she was safe. The new turn of the conversation was something he should've seen coming. Mostly he was frustrated by how completely he felt he'd just been played.

"That's hardly what I had in mind, Elena."

"Well, you can't come. You've established that. As for Damon, he's the best on offer, right? He's stronger than Stefan, older _and_ stronger than Caroline. He's good in a fight, good back up." _In love with you_, Elijah added silently, fighting frustration. "And if things go south here, who would _you_ vote most likely to piss Klaus off?"

Twenty minutes later Elena stood in the foyer of the Boarding house watching Damon's expression grow thoughtful as she talked fast until she ran out of steam.

After a long moment of silence, he said, "So, let me get this straight…" He turned and walked away from her down the hallway leaving her standing alone.

Baffled, she turned and followed him.

She heard his voice from the other room as he went on, "you think you can just come here …" Elena turned the corner and found herself standing in the doorway to Damon's bedroom. He rustled around in an open closet. He turned and dropped a duffle bag onto the foot of his bed. "with your best 'helpless female' face and I'm supposed to drop everything to go traipsing across the country…."

He continued her dressing down about her complete lack of common courtesy while he gathered three changes of clothes and stuffed them carelessly into his bag. When he was finished, he turned, flung it over his shoulder and smiled.

His hair blew back as he was folded into a heartfelt hug. Elena had thought she would have another fight on her hands tonight.

"Has anyone told you today how awesome you are?" The question came out as a mumble because her face was tucked against his shirt.

"Yeah, many times, but I guess I can stand hearing it again." She heard the smile in his voice. He grew serious when he asked, "Is he going to be mad at you about this?"

"Yeah. He's pretty worked up."

Damon hugged her again and said was he was thinking, as usual. "Good. You've been entirely too obedient lately. Can't let him get used to that."

"It's _Milla_." The concern she felt echoing in the name, saying it all.

"I know. I'm worried too." Heading back toward the door, he asked, "So…we taking my car?"

"Nah. We'll take my plane." Elena answered and Damon skidded to a halt, his shoes literally sliding across the floor.

A dazzling smile met her as he turned. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"The pilot just called you ma'am." Damon had leaned forward in his seat, using his best stage whisper.

"You're not going to gush, are you?" Elena staged whispered back at him. "Taking the 'girl' part of 'best girlfriends' a bit far, don't you think?"

Damon sat back in his seat, chuckling. He'd earned best friend status with Elena a few years ago after saving her life. Trying to lighten the moment, he'd jokingly dismissed it with a 'best girlfriends' label. Years later it was still a running joke between them.

They were getting ready for takeoff. Elijah, _bless him_, had made the calls for her while she headed out to try to talk Damon into going along with her plan. The crew knew her now just as well as they knew Elijah, but she'd had concerns this would become a power play between the two of them that the whole staff would witness. Thankfully her husband could be classy even when he was angry.

Elena could run as far as Arizona if she really needed to, more quickly than any plane. But, unlike Elijah, she would be starving when she arrived and it would be apparent to anyone who saw her that something was alarmingly wrong. She'd show up with greying skin and red eyes; the whole bit. It wasn't something she felt that the werewolves she would be joining would appreciate or understand. The other issue would be getting Damon there if she'd tried traveling that way.

Elijah, on the other hand, could run as long and as far as he liked and never show a sign of what he'd done. Years after her change, she learned that this was how he had been able to see her so much while living in Virginia and visiting her in California every weekend.

She could see that Damon was anxious to talk about their plan, but waiting until they were alone. A female attendant provided drinks and bustled for a few minutes that evidently felt like forever. Discretion made Damon itchy.

As the door closed finally and they were alone; he leaned forward, "So this tracking…the last time we talked about it, you told me it was a bluff…?"

"It was. It's not anymore."

Elena heard him huff in frustration. "I'm gonna need a little more than that…"

Setting aside her phone, she explained, "Elijah is pretty much the best at tracking. It's a little spooky how good – which is how he caught me…." She stuttered, remembering things she preferred to forget, "a few years ago. I asked him to teach me. We've been at it for years." She shrugged. "So it really IS a hobby now."

"So you really _can_ track someone to the ends of the earth, then?" He looked skeptical.

"We're about to find out."

A few hours later, Elena stood over the crumpled wreck that had been Milla's car. All that was left now was twisted metal and broken glass. Her friend Emma had been extricated from the wreckage and there were tracks that wrapped around the site for a quarter mile in all directions. Elena could pick them all out now, telling the distinct difference between rescue workers and the trackers Jack had called in.

Damon stood watching her, feeling puzzled. The way she was acting reminded him of a blood hound. He was waiting for her to stick her nose to the ground and run in circles. She kept stopping to tip her head up in the wind. If, at any point, she let out a bellowing howl when she did that, he would be officially done and going home.

He stayed leaned next to the car with Jack, both of them watching her and just trying to stay out of her way.

At last count, Milla had now been missing for a little over twelve hours and her poor father was officially a wreck. Jack's eyes were bloodshot and red rimmed. His greying hair and his clothes were rumpled. Damon didn't have a clue what to say that would help. Over time, he'd even grown fond of Jack and Milla. Milla's visits in the summer to Elena's house for a few weeks were something he had learned to look forward to as she grew. She was a sweet, beautiful girl with a streak of mischief a mile wide.

Elena mumbled and looked around like she was expecting an answer. Both Damon and Jack looked at each other and shrugged. Neither had understood what she asked.

Elena tried again. "Did you bring trackers that were wolfed out, Jack?"

Jack pointed at the sky. The moon hung over them, bright with the clear night. "Waning gibbous, Elena. No one will be wolfed out for another two weeks or so." Damon was impressed, but he supposed a werewolf would have to know the phases of the moon by heart. To Jack that information would be a no brainer. Another reason Damon was glad to be the monster he was, rather than someone else's nightmare.

Elena pointed to the ground. "There was a wolf here."

Jack nodded. "Right. The others found that too. We figure it was a dog that wandered up somewhere along the way either before or after the accident."

Elena shook her head. "No. That's no dog. That's a Were, maybe even two, Jack."

Jack pushed off leaning against the car and joined her where she stood. "That's impossible."

Elena put a small hand on her hip, looking up at Jack. "Except that it's not because it's right there. This is why your trackers couldn't find anything. Because they refused to believe what they found, dismissing the facts because they didn't make sense." Elena knew of only two Weres who could change regardless of the phase the moon was in. Jonah Walker, the former leader of the defunct Werewolf Council was dead. The other was a hybrid and her brother in law.

Klaus was the illegitimate son of a man who carried the werewolf curse in his blood and the witch that would cast the spell that created all vampires. Living in the convergence of the two races made him exceptionally deadly….and more than a little cranky in her humble opinion.

Jack was walking the path the Were took, shaking his head in confusion.

"Alright, guys. You head back toward Jack's place. I'm going to follow this. See where it leads and who it leads to."

Damon was up and at her side, mouth opened and an argument ready.

Elena reached up with one hand and covered his mouth before he even got started. Eyes hard and one eyebrow up, his blue eyes spoke for him.

"What choice do we have, Damon?"

His expression shifted to worry as her hand remained over his mouth.

"I'll be careful. I promise."

Another hard look from him and she removed her hand, her shoulders bowed a little in defeat.

"Fine. Come with." She shrugged and turned back to the car to gather their things.

Damon turned away grinning triumphantly, but kept it to himself. He'd just won an argument with her without say a word. _That had to be a new record. _

Jack approached him from behind, intending to ask the plan, but first, he had to ask, "What was that exactly? Telepathy?" He'd long ago accepted that their East Coast friends would always seem strange to him, but sometimes curiosity got the better of him.

Damon shrugged. "Nah. Girl talk. I've become fluent with years of practice."

Jack just shook his head while Damon reassured him that they would call immediately when they knew something, or head straight to Jack's home with Milla when they found her, if possible.

The two of them headed out across the desert landscape in the dark with Elena following a scent that Damon couldn't even pick up. They ran for five miles in silence until they topped a hill and saw a mountain in the distance surrounded by two small buttes, one on either side. Elena's face was tipped to the wind and she stopped so they could talk. She pointed at the base of the furthest butte on the left.

"There." The scent was growing stronger the closer they got.

They found a small copse of trees nestled between the foot of the butte and the mountain beside it, a valley really with greenery spread out around them.

The scent was nearly overwhelming now and Elena spotted movement under the trees. As she came closer she realized it was the largest werewolf she had ever seen. It was twice the size of any she had seen with her own eyes, but compared to what Elijah had described when he faced Johan Walker. This wolf, though was golden, with highlights of white in its fur. It turned as she approached and stood. That was when Elena realized it was a female. Oh, dear Heaven.

Milla.

The accident had killed her friend and Milla was driving. She had activated the curse. The death of another person at the one who carried the curse activated it. No one had considered that. But Milla had transformed immediately. It should've happened with the next full moon.

An echo of her own voice from seven years ago rang in her mind. "if it does heal her, it might change her DNA, too. The long term effects could meant that, if she ever activates the curse, she might be one helluva werewolf. I don't know. Elijah and I are speculating there."

Elena had used her own blood to heal a nine year old Milla from terminal leukemia. At the time, the benefits outweighed the risks. Now, years later, some of those risks had come to life.

Milla was twice the size of any other werewolf and could change without the influence of the moon.

Not to mention she was a teenage girl who had just lost her best friend and would be heartbroken.

Elena stopped in her tracks, making a long skid in the sand to stop where she'd been running so fast. Damon stopped next to her and they both looked at the golden wolf less than half a mile away from them.

"Is that what I think it is?" Damon choked out.

"You mean who?" Elena hadn't taken her eyes off the wolf that had stood at their approach and was now stalking back and forth aggressively under the trees.

"Yeah, that too."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **

**I published this a few hours ago prematurely and had to withdraw it. My apologies if you were notified of the first copy. Happy reading. **

Chapter 4

The golden wolf continued to stalk beneath the trees, legs stiff and tail high with aggression. The last thing Elena wanted was a confrontation with her god daughter. They just needed to reason with her. But the body language she was giving off made that unlikely for either her or Damon. Both of their scents would be a red flag to a werewolf, being natural enemies and all.

Elena reached Jack by phone. Jack was frantic and headed out at top speed with a few more from their pack. If anyone could calm Milla, talk her down, it would be her father. Once she was calm, Jack felt sure she would be able to change back because it hadn't been the moon that forced her transformation. Or at least that was his hope. They were in uncharted territory now.

After nearly an hour of talking, Jack brought Milla back to herself. They covered her with a blanket and Jack held her as she cried. She was bundled into an all-terrain vehicle and they all agreed to meet at the crash site.

When the vehicle with Milla in it arrived, Elena and Damon were already waiting. Milla was talking with her father, gesturing wildly as they pulled up.

"But Dad, there was. I saw it – him, I dunno. I _felt_ it." Milla argued.

"There's no sign anyone else was here, Milla." Jack was trying to reassure her with soothing tones. "There's no danger. I promise."

Milla crawled out of the car, moving over the ground in her bare feet like she was searching for something.

"Here!" She yelled and Jack joined her. It was a partial paw print in the dirt on the roadside.

"Milla that's only a partial. It could be anything. I could've been you, even."

Milla covered her face with her hands. "I didn't just _mess up and hurt Emma_." Tears spilled out around her hands. "Someone was here. I got distracted. That's on me. But I swear, Dad. Something was here. It felt dangerous and I think maybe I chased after it."

Elena watched it happen from a hundred feet away. It was evidently the upset that triggered her transformations at this early stage. The increase in adrenaline and a dump of serotonin and "poof" instant werewolf. Milla dropped to her knees crying out in pain.

In Elena's world, the whole scene slowed to a crawl. Milla' body rippled and stretched as she screamed, shifting and popping bones into and out of joint. In a matter of only a few seconds she went from distraught girl to hunkered wolf, with golden eyes focused on her nearest enemy. Damon.

Damon saw what was happening, his eyes went wide as the lumbering wolf crouched and made to spring, intending on closing the distance between them. Sharp white teeth were bared and snapped at the air as the massive rear legs pushed off, aimed at Damon only twenty feet away.

Elena didn't move to full speed, fearing what that would do on impact to the girl. But she moved fast enough that no one saw her coming. She sprung as the wolf sprung. Airborne, the two converged and Elena wrapped her arms around the wolf's torso, thinking to, at the very least, push her away and possibly immobilize her. It would've worked too, because the two of them, caught by Elena's momentum, were flung another forty feet from her target after spinning together once in the air.

But, in the flail of fur, legs and arms and the tumble to the ground as they slid, Milla opened her jaws wide. Razor sharp teeth caught Elena's arm, closing once tightly before being forced open again by the impact.

Damon's bellow split the air, louder even than the furious wolf had been.

The wolf whined and stood, withdrawing. Jack followed her at a run, speaking softly to calm her again.

Damon slid on his knees to where Elena lay on the sand, his eyes wide and horrified. Elena opened her eyes, but she already lacked the strength to sit up. The poison was fast.

"No. No." He held up her small arm and turned it to see the damage. Punctures were still bleeding from either side, the blood soaking her white shirt and pants as it pumped with her heart.

"Oh, please no." He'd already lost Ric this way. To a wolf bite. _Protecting his sorry ass_.

"No. This is not happening." He tore the sleeve from his shirt and made a tourniquet to slow the bleeding. He already knew the bleeding wouldn't stop and the wound wouldn't close. The swelling had already started.

"Elena! Why? Why? Why in the world would you do such a thing?" He was shouting. He was horrified and furious. So why did her face waver in and out when he tried to focus on it? He rubbed the back of his hand angrily across his eyes, finding tears. It took him a minute to realize he was also nearly crippled at the thought of losing her, sitting motionless and paralyzed with loss already.

Elena drew a deep breath and raised her good hand to lay over his.

"I couldn't let that happen…." Where he was shouting, in contrast, her voice was already starting to sound weak. Ric's had done that, too.

Forcing himself to action, Damon lifted her gently and carried her to the back seat of one of the pack member's cars. He sat in the back with her, her head rested on his lap as he called instructions to the driver to get them to the airport. He moved a hand over her hair as she slept, at least free from the pain for a few minutes. The bite would be excruciating.

Using Elena's phone, Damon called her husband.

When the line connected, without a greeting, Damon said, "Elena's been bitten. A wolf bit her." His voice was thick with emotion.

"What? How?' Elijah's deep voice rang across the line.

"Milla. She activated her curse. She's some sort of amped up wolf after Elena's blood all those years ago and she can't control it. Elena's fading in and out. We're headed for the airport. I don't know how long she'll hold out." His voice broke with the last sentence.

"Don't take off when you get there. Wait." Elijah commanded, nearly shouting. Elena wasn't likely to last for the four hour flight.

"Wait…but?" Damon asked raggedly.

"WAIT!" It was a bellow this time and the line disconnected.

Damon carried her gently to the plane, lying her on a couch in the back. She'd been unconscious for most of the car ride. Her face was flushed, the wound was pulsing and continued to bleed slowly.

She groaned and opened her eyes. Damon was pressing a cold cloth to her face.

He shook his head when she looked at him. "Stupid, stupid." But he said it tenderly.

She used her good hand to take his wrist.

"Damon." It was just his name, but he could hear where she was going. And his heart quaked in his chest, nearly paralyzing him again. So much loss already. _And now her_.

Straightening his shoulders, he turned away for a second under the guise of dipping the rag into the bowl of cool water someone had brought. _Now was not the time to mourn_. He pushed it aside with effort, _for her_.

"No. Don't you dare do that. Don't you say goodbye." Her face wavered again until he blinked and tears washed over his face.

He drew a pained breath fearing he'd never have a chance like this again.

"Elena. There are things you should know." He placed the rag against her face as he spoke. Her eyes opened and swept his face as she smiled peacefully.

"I love you, too, Damon." The words were a comfort, but he knew, even as she said them that it wasn't the same. _It would never be the same._

"That's why I couldn't…." her voice broke. "You drive me nuts. And I love you." She smiled up at him through her fever and her tears.

Pain seemed to rack her as another name came to mind.

"Elijah." Her good hand came up to her mouth to cover it as the tears doubled, flowing down over her face.

"He knows. I called him. He insisted we hold the plane. I think maybe he's coming."

She was shaking her head. "He was right. He's always right. Tell him…" A sob stopped the words and Damon held her hand.

"I know. He knows. But I'll tell him." He reassured her after a hard swallow.

Another thought occurred to her.

"Don't let Milla blame herself, ok?" Tears continued to leak from her eyes.

"I won't. I promise." His throat closed. She was dying and thinking of others.

"Tell Milla this is what family does. We bleed for each other." It was an echo of what Milla had said to her years ago when she was too small even to understand the differences between Elena and herself.

The door swung open and Damon turned to find Klaus standing in the doorway. He was dressed oddly for the Arizona desert, in a black suit and shirt. His expression looked annoyed, but Klaus always looked annoyed.

Without greeting or preamble, Klaus said, "Leave us." The command had all the arrogance of royalty ringing in it.

Damon stood, uncertain whether he needed to be doing what Klaus demanded, or protecting Elena.

Klaus turned cold blue eyes on him, his voice deepening with irritation at having to explain himself. "You have been waiting for me. Now leave us."

Confused, Damon left them and closed the door, poised behind it in concern.

Klaus sat on the edge of the couch next to Elena. She opened her eyes to his face and, even in her fevered state, gasped weakly.

"Come little sister, no welcome for me?" Elena looked in to blue eyes that smiled at her.

"What are you doing here?" Her voice was only a whisper. She swallowed hard against the pain that throbbed with her heartbeat starting at her arm and working its way down.

"I am saving your life." He told her as he brought his wrist to his mouth and bit down.

"But…why?" She attempted to move away, but was too weak to do much good.

"Because this is what family does. We bleed for each other." He was quoting her, but he made it a mockery with a sneer.

Klaus, as the only hybrid, carried the only cure for a wolf bite that could save Elena. Because he maintained the two in perfect balance in his blood stream, his blood would counter the active virus in the bite.

Elena, even in her weakened state, watched him with narrowed eyes. "What is this going to cost me?"

He held his bleeding wrist up to her before she had time to say anything else.

"Cost _you_? Nothing of value." Klaus chuckled to himself like he'd made a clever joke.

Elena took two draws of the blood and pulled away gasping at the foul taste. He remained seated, but moved as if he would stand before he stopped himself.

"There is one thing you could do, actually." He said, his eyes cast down and he looked vaguely uncomfortable. "The girl. Tell her I am sorry about her friend. I never meant that to happen." He shrugged like it didn't matter much.

"Elijah had her name and a picture on his phone of her. My curiosity was piqued." Elena's eyes went wide with horror as she realized he meant Milla.

"He never told you he gave me an open invitation to any home that was his, did he?" One eyebrow up, Klaus' grin became a broad smile.

"What? Why?" Elena felt like her heart had stopped. That would mean that he could come and go freely from their home. And evidently had. _No wonder Elijah was so upset about seeing his brother again._

Her eyes were still wide with horror as they met Klaus' filled with the implications of what he'd just told her. And what Elijah had withheld.

Klaus smiled, his eyes distant at the memories. "It has been nearly five centuries now. During the Hapsburg Wars. A coven of witches tried to kill him – he was drawn in by one of them that looked like you actually. I saved his life. When it was done, that was his pledge to me. That sort of promise lasts." He patted his chest with a fist once for emphasis. His eyes moved over her face, the surprise and horror there. "I wonder what else he has not told you, little sister. Maybe you do not know my brother so well as you think."

Klaus stood carelessly and straightened his jacket before he stopped again at the door appearing thoughtful. He turned and looked at Elena again, and his smile was warmer somehow.

"The girl. There are very few things that surprise me anymore. When she came tearing out of that car after me, she was…" He paused for a moment, his eyes distant again and his smile wide, "magnificent." Klaus laughed quietly to himself as he opened the door and was gone.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Damon hovered. Like a nursemaid. It was humiliating. But what else could he do?

Klaus disappeared and the plane was cleared to leave. Through the whole flight, he sat with Elena, holding the cloth to her face while she slept, or cleaning and bandaging the wound that had finally closed. The flush of her skin was gone and the hard pant her breathing had taken on calmed as she slept.

The whole world tipped up on its axis in one night. After everything, he'd nearly managed to lose her completely. The paralyzing sense of loss was gone as he watched the wounds close and the swelling subside. But he felt changed somehow by the close call she'd had…._for him. Saving his ass_.

How could he ever repay that?

He'd not personally ever seen anyone survive a wolf bite. He'd heard whispers of a "cure" but he'd never believed it. To find that "cure" came with the _worst possible packaging_, -he shuddered to himself just thinking about it-, explained why it wasn't common knowledge.

The other side of this went back to Elena's question to Klaus about what his effort might cost her. He'd heard everything through the door, afraid to leave her. In Damon's experience, nothing was _ever_ free.

He tried to call her husband before the plane left, but got a strange, fast busy signal rather than connecting. He'd felt relief, honestly, at avoiding that conversation. Klaus would likely tell Elijah that Elena was safe anyway.

Damon was sure the "how" of Elena's bite would come up eventually. One more time, he was to blame. She would argue, like she argued everything. But Damon knew that it should have been him. Nothing she could say would ever change that. He knew without doubt that her Original would have an opinion about that, too.

Her first thoughts, when she woke, were of Elijah.

When the plane finally landed, Elena was back to her old self. Sort of. She still seemed flushed and hot to Damon. Mostly she was impatient to be gone. She'd tried to call her husband too, even from the air, pilot or no pilot and couldn't reach him.

"I just need to make it right with him." She insisted when she left the plane alone finally.

Elena stepped through the door of their home and noticed the change immediately. The whole place had stopped, like a body when the heart was removed. All that remained was locked in deathly stillness.

The fireplace was dark and still. Elijah kept a fire burning nearly all the time when they were home. He said it was a habit learned long ago.

Rushing up the stairs, her heart in her throat, she went to their room. Tears filled her eyes as she flung the doors open. Her things remained, untouched. His closet was empty as if he had never been there.

His books, the trinkets he loved that had decorated their room, and the clock he had built with his own hands in his study. All of it was gone, removed with the precision of a surgeon.

Actual physical pain rolled over her, a crushing sensation started in her chest and rose to her throat. It emerged as a sound, an inhuman roar of pain – a single note of agony. She sank to the floor, looking at the empty racks and the freshly vacuumed carpet as the tears fell. She opened her mouth and covered it immediately, trying to stifle the wail that continued to come out of her in waves.

Elijah was gone. He gathered what mattered to him and left what didn't. He left her. Alone.

Her phone rang in her pocket. She reached around, pulled it out and stared at the screen, still sobbing. It was Damon. She accidentally hit something and the call connected. She heard his voice saying her name, but she couldn't get any words out. Just the sobs; they were all that was left of her. The call disconnected and she was face down on the floor, lost in pain.

Then there were gentle hands gathering her, lifting her up, off the floor. She was still racked with the sobs, but her tears had run dry. Whoever it was, she wrapped her arms around them for dear life as another round of sobs, now silent, shook her.

Quiet words calmed her. She couldn't understand any of them, but the tone was kind, gentle. The voice was a balm for the pain.

Hours later Elena opened her eyes in a room she didn't recognize under a pile of blankets several inches thick. Looking around the room, she found Damon in a wooden chair with his arms crossed over his chest. His long legs were propped up on another chair and he was sleeping in what looked to be the most uncomfortable position possible.

It was in that moment that she remembered.

Elijah had taken all of his things and walked away. She also remembered the mess she had been the night before, rushing home to him and finding only emptiness.

She sat up, pushing the mountain of covers aside.

"Take it easy. You were running a hellacious fever last night." Damon had opened his eyes.

"Thank you." Her voice sounded small and rusty. She flushed at the memory of the mess she had been the night before, what he had seen. He must've been the one to pick her up and carry her out of that.

Blue eyes moved over her slowly before he stood. Sitting next to her on the bed, he covered the hand she was leaning on with one of his.

"Are you better?" Worry made his voice deep.

Elena nodded. What else could she say? That she promised not to fall apart? She couldn't keep that promise.

Where she'd waltzed with agony the night before, anger took its place for a turn around the room.

Elijah's phone was disconnected. He'd walked away without a word, or a sign. Doing exactly what he'd accused her once of, bellowing about trust and betrayal. The thought roared through her like a freight train. It must've shown in her eyes because Damon sized her up and stood.

"I don't know what's going on, Elena. But as someone who knows a little about what we are and how to live with it, I'm telling you not to sit in that storm I see brewing. It wouldn't take much to flip for you right now, honey." His eyes were kind and concerned as they moved over her.

Elena took a deep breath and swung around to look at the floor. That was the last thing she wanted, to stop caring, to live and breathe for death and destruction. She'd been there once and it was a nightmare, not a comfort. And there wasn't anyone to stop her this time. Elijah had done that.

"You're right. Thank you. I didn't think of that." Her voice cracked and he sat back down. She was surrounded in comfort as the tears fell again, Damon wrapping both arms around her. The storm of agony from the night before had subsided, but now she wasn't sure what to do with herself.

When she was calm, she looked again around the unfamiliar room.

"Where are we, exactly?" The furniture was walnut and antique. The walls were a light olive tone and the floors were covered in a variety of multicolored wool rugs pushed together in what should have been a mish –mash. But it worked somehow. It had a bohemian antique-ish feel that she liked immediately. How had she never seen this room before?

"One of the spare rooms at my place." Damon told her, standing. "I overheard Klaus last night. Knowing he could walk in on you…it just didn't seem safe to stay there." He headed for the door before he stopped.

"Breakfast?" He asked but she shook her head. Her stomach rolled at the thought.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Fine. Coffee? I'll even make it." He despised the stuff, so that was a huge concession and she smiled, even if it was dim.

Damon came rushing down the hallway and Stefan was standing near the stairs to the third floor. Damon had heard him coming, leading to him searching for any excuse to intercept his brother.

"What are you doing up here? We don't use these rooms, Damon." Damon's expression was alarmed and he had a finger over his lips. Leading his brother away, he walked quickly to the kitchen and pulled out a pen and notepad.

Damon mouthed Elena's name to Stefan and pointed upstairs. Stefan flashed a confused expression and Damon started to write as wrath churned through him.

**That ****SONOFABITCH**** cleaned everything he owned out. He left her without a word.**

Stefan's mouth hung open and he covered it with one hand.

They both knew from experience that Elena could hear a pin drop from ten miles away. He'd put her in their furthest rooms for just that reason. Hoping to shield her somehow from everything and everyone.

Damon kept writing.

**We just have to make sure she doesn't flip. That would kill her.**

Damon didn't add that she'd then probably kill everyone else, but he was thinking it. Elena got all murdery without her humanity as fast as she did everything else. But honestly his deepest concern was for her.

Stefan was shaking his head just at the thought, his eyes wide. They'd also both seen what Elena was like when she set aside her humanity. Stefan mouthed his question, "How?"

**We keep her calm. This will pass. She's going to be ok.**

Stefan nodded. So Damon straightened, put the pad away where it wouldn't be seen and turned to make her the coffee he'd promised. Blue eyes had hardened to steel as he thought of what he'd found last night and who was to blame.

Elena saved his life, nearly lost hers and did lose her husband all in one night. They would all help her through this. She was right. They were family now.

Elena drew a deep, calming breath. She'd been running. It calmed her, the quiet rhythm of it. Stopping to sit beneath an ancient tree, watching the light play through the cover, she took a minute to reflect.

Four months had passed since the night her world was rocked and she was making a start at putting her life back together. She continued to stay at the boarding house and hadn't yet had the courage to return to the home she'd shared with Elijah. The thought of it made her chest burn.

Stefan had retrieved most of her personal things for her. The rest could rot for all she cared.

Four months without a word from Elijah. She'd never understand. An argument was all it took? Really? Or was there more she didn't understand. Because they'd had arguments before. If she thought on it too long, the tears would come again and she was _damned tired_ of crying.

She'd decided it was time to get her own place. Damon and Stefan had been amazing; allowing her time and space to heal and be safe. But she was stronger now and restless. She couldn't hide forever and when she'd realized that was what she was doing, Elena made her decision. She'd get a place of her own, a home and start again.

They'd argue. Damon especially. He must've wiped away a million tears in the last four months. And never once had he been annoyed or impatient; which were his hallmarks. He had been warm, kind, supportive and more than lived up to the best friend label she'd given him years ago.

Of all of her friends and family, the one Elena had been most surprised by was Bonnie. Her kind, loving heart saw injustice itself in what Elena had been through and she burned with it. The first night they'd sat together after all the drama Elena had been fragile and while Bonnie hugged her, the window in Elena's room had cracked all by itself. Elena started noticing that, although she seemed quiet and calm, where Bonnie went in the Boarding house, destruction seemed to follow her. Broken dishes, cracked wooden chairs, shattered windows. Evidently, she soundlessly breathed fire about the whole thing. Her face never gave a flicker, but she overheard Damon telling Bonnie once that she was worse than a demolition crew. Bonnie answered that at least no one had gone up in smoke yet, which made Damon shout with laughter. Her tone made it pretty clear who she wanted to smoke. But no one said his name. Not ever.

Standing, Elena looked around and realized she was actually very close to what had been their home. It hadn't been planned, but maybe she'd instinctively run this direction. Walking slowly, dread building, she moved over the last few hundred yards. Their yard had become overgrown and neglected.

Her heart pounded like a base drum in her chest as she moved across the back yard toward the front door, a thousand memories flooding her.

She waded through the past though, when the present caught her attention. On the door, taped to it, was a large manila envelope with her name typed on it. There were a dozen stickers from messengers that she never got, looking to make deliveries.

She pulled the envelope off the door and looked hard at the return address. It was a lawyer's office in Richmond. Oh, dear Heaven. _Divorce papers_? Her hands shook.

Elena turned and sat on the step, taking the package with both hands. After a deep breath, she tore it open slowly. The first page showed the date the letter had been sent to her. The date was three months ago. Reading swiftly, her heart racing, she sat fanning herself nervously with the papers as she read.

_Elijah had given her everything._ There was no divorce. But he had signed over everything to her name. The house, the business and all of the assets associated with both were now in her name. Lock, stock and barrel. It had all been in only her name for the last three months.

Billions. An empire. _ His_ empire. The one he'd been building for 60 years.

_Why?_

Sitting on that porch, her porch now, she floundered for answers.

She knew him like no one else knew him, even his brother. If he just didn't love her, would he have done this? She thought of how he had always insisted that he be the one to provide, give her everything…anything. Even to the point of arguments when she used her own funds.

Wonder stole over her. _This was an act of love._ There had to be something else going on here besides a lack of interest, or boredom, or someone else. Which were all options she had wrestled with tearfully.

Elena made a few calls and pulled her keys out of her back pocket. Strange that she brought them when she hadn't intended to come here. Drawing another deep breath, she went into the house, _her house_ to wait.

Damon rang her doorbell a few minutes later and she ran to fling open the door, putting up a hand to stop him before he moved to come inside.

"I want to try something. Don't be mad, ok?"

His brow furrowed and he shrugged. "Mad? Ok. What?"

"Do you have an invitation?" She watched, to see what would happen. He tried to step in, but ran into an invisible wall. Leaning against it, like there really was a wall there, he raised an annoyed brow.

"I told you not to be mad." She pointed out. "Please come in." He was still leaning on the invisible barrier and pitched forward when she said it. She hadn't known that would happen and laughed as he caught himself.

"Sorry. No offense. I had to see if it was true, if it would work."

Damon, clearly annoyed now, made himself comfortable on the couch. "The place has changed hands, then?"

She nodded, smiling. "It's mine now."

He crossed his arms over his chest and looked around. "How?"

Reaching for the papers, she showed him the letter on top.

"Damn. The house _and _the business. That's a chunk o' change. But I don't get it." His crystal blue eyes moved over her warily.

"He's not a man of words. That's a love letter, Damon."

He reared back, "Elena, I don't know if this is what you think it is…."

Hearing the warning in his voice, she did stop to consider if she was wrong. She might be. This might go nowhere. But at least she'd have more answers than she did now.

Damon only wanted to protect her. Even from herself.

She sat down beside him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She kissed his cheek. There was no argument. It was clear what had to happen now.

He had gone as still as stone when her arms came around him. When she kissed him, he turned wary eyes on her.

"You've decided something."

"I'm going to Great Britain."

"For?"

"To look for him."

"Aren't there easier ways to do that?"

"No, not him _now_. Him _way back when_. I know where and I know when. There's something back there he's hiding. Maybe Klaus threatened him with it." She thought of the look in Klaus' eyes when he realized she had no idea about his permanent invitation. The suggestion that she didn't know Elijah so well. It made sense. There was more going on here than a neglectful husband. "So, I'll just go sightseeing."

"You might not like what you find, Elena."

"It won't change anything either way, Damon."

"Want company?" More of Damon protecting her.

"Not this time. Thanks, though." This was something Elena was going to have to do alone. Whatever she found, it was private and would stay that way, no matter what.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Elena immersed herself in research. She started with the National Archives in the United Kingdom, with government records that went back a thousand years. From there, she went where he'd told her he was from all those years ago before even her second semester of college. "What would become known as Norwich." That would've been called Northfolk, in his time. In the local archives were more personal details, but the further back you went, the harder pinning things down was.

After days of searching, reading through old diaries, letters and legends, eventually she found him. And it set her back on her heels.

He had always referred to himself as a monster. Now she finally understood. That wasn't self-consciousness talking as she'd always thought. It made her chest hurt just thinking about it.

A middle aged clerk with her brown hair in a tight bun found Elena crying over dusty pages. An Anglo-Saxon historian captured the oral traditions of the Viking people along with current events at the time and how they converged onto scrolls. Elijah was there, in the pages. The poor clerk didn't have a clue what to think about an American that sobbed over historic records. She brought her tissues and said "there, there." a lot. Mostly she was probably concerned that Elena would get tears on the parchments.

She walked back to her hotel room alone in the rain after the local archive office in Norwich closed. She had a respectable car and driver to chauffeur her around, but she sent him home for the night saying she needed to walk. And think. Soaked by the rain and weighed down by the past, she trudged. No rush, no running, just an honest quiet walk to think things through.

What she found wouldn't be all of it. Klaus' reference to the Hapsburg wars in the 1500's proved that. But she had found the start of it, when the change would've been new for Elijah, and all the power and strength that went with it. And what he did with it.

Events had molded him, making him into who he was today. She could see that. The civility that Klaus had scorned on the mountain – she understood now.

She focused then on how she felt about it. Did it change who he was? Did it change how she felt about him?

Drawing a deep breath, she thought of all the simple kindnesses from him over the past fifteen years. His compassion, tenderness, honor, wisdom….all of those things were part of him, just as much as these events were.

One of the last things he'd said to her was that he'd always been who he was right now, with the same passions and the same furies.

She loved him. The past didn't change that and the future wouldn't either. If he didn't want her, then she'd set him free. It might cauterize the wound, actually. But her feelings wouldn't change, even then.

There, standing in the rain with her heart in her throat, her cell phone rang in her back pocket. She blinked furiously and pulled it out. It was Damon. He called to check on her every other day or so.

"How are you?" His deep voice spanned thousands of miles and she could still hear the strain in it.

She swallowed hard. "I'm okay."

There was a harrumph sound from him. "No. You were okay the last time we talked. You aren't now. What's changed?"

Thousands of miles away and Damon could read her so easily. It should've annoyed her, but it made her smile instead.

"I found him." Her voice caught and she swallowed.

"It's bad. I knew it would be bad. Do I need to come?" Damon's words rushed out.

"No. No. It's okay. I just struck the mother lode a couple of hours ago and I'm still processing it. That's all."

"Are you coming home, then?"

Elena drew a deep breath, thinking about Damon's question for the first time. She'd not considered what she'd do with whatever she might find.

"In a few days." Elena had been in Great Britain for nearly three weeks. A few more days wouldn't matter. "I have to do something first. Then I'll come back and start again, I think."

With her unfettered access to the business that he still used, it took only a few keystrokes to find him. Both he and Klaus were together, their accounts both drawing deliveries to the same place every week, but their mutual location shifted occasionally. She found records of their travels to Amsterdam, Halmstad and finally London in the last few months. Elena now had an address and it was only a hundred miles away or so from where she was already.

After spending two hours taking painstaking care with her appearance, she set out to face her husband for what might be the last time. Setting off for the short run to London, she felt more like she was attending a funeral than a meeting. Dread built in her chest, growing stronger the closer she got. For once, she wished she didn't arrive so quickly at what she now knew to be the door to the flat he was using.

A light tap at the door and she was waiting on the street, her stomach rolling with tension.

Steps on the other side of the door caused it to tighten even more.

As Elijah opened the door, he blinked in what looked like confusion. He looked mostly the same. He wore a dark shirt with the sleeves rolled up at the elbows and pants the same color. His hair was a little longer and there was a faint shadow of whiskers on his face that made her draw her hand to a fist to keep from reaching out to touch it. The whiskers were new, and she liked them very much.

His eyes were darker than she remembered, nearly the color of midnight and she watched his broad frame draw tight with tension as he looked down at her.

"Elena. What a nice surprise." His tone didn't match his words. It sounded like he saw nothing nice about it.

"Elijah." She drew her lips into what was intended to be a smile but never quite reached its goal. "Is this a bad time?"

He turned and looked behind him, back into the room where she couldn't see and was still for a second before he turned back to her and answered. "Not a bad time at all. Please come in."

At least she wouldn't have to do this standing at the door without an invitation.

The apartment had a warm, opulent feel to it. A long burgundy brocade couch matched with dark leather chairs sat around a small fireplace that burned hot on the cool, damp night. The polished hardwood floor was covered in a wool rug with a design of gold and burgundy scrollwork. It was lovely. And impersonal. She saw nothing of the person he was in this place.

Elijah gestured for her to sit and she found a place in the furthest corner from what appeared to be where he was sitting, if the book turned face down over the arm of a chair was any indication. He took his place, crossed one leg over the other and looked at her.

"What can I do for you?" His tone was all business, but his eyes were narrowed and his shoulders back stiffly, like he was braced for something.

"Mostly I came to say thank you." Why was her heart beating so loudly? She could barely hear him for the pulsing sound in her ears.

His brows shot up, surprise softening his expression. "For…?"

"The house. The business. You didn't have to do that." He cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable.

"I thought a clean slate was best." He told her after a breath. Shifting in his chair under the tension, he said, "I assume you will have redecorated the house at the very least? Or have you sold the place?"

She looked at her hands, clasped together and white knuckled in her lap. "Oh, no. Not yet. I only learned it was mine a few weeks ago."

His dark eyes narrowed and moved over her slowly before she watched all expression be wiped clean from his face.

"You found somewhere else to stay very quickly, then." His voice had deepened three octaves and his tone told her he already knew where she'd been staying. And with who.

"I did. Yes. With people who love me." She raised her chin a little at the last sentence.

His lips drew to a smile, but it was hard, his eyes still narrowed. "Of course." He agreed. "You're much too young to waste time."

The hiss of accusation was there in Elijah's words, but the tone was casual. Her heart stopped behind her breastbone completely and shuddered useless for several seconds before it started up again.

_He was furious_. That dark, thoughtful type of furious she'd only ever seen in him a few times.

Who, exactly did he see as the victim here? He was the one who had walked away. What did he have to be furious about?

Elena leaned forward, searching his face to understand his words but finding no answers.

"You're going to have to explain."

"You were injured and dying. Your Damon called to tell me so." Dark eyes moved over her like a whip before he turned his eyes to the fire. "I called Klaus, knowing he would be the only remedy. He made a bargain with me. Your life in exchange for my walking away without a word. He wanted things to be as they were. He and I travelling together."

"So this makes you happy?"

"The arrangement suits me." He said without turning around. She noticed that he didn't exactly answer the question.

Elijah felt her eyes on the back of his neck, studying him closely. Elena saw too much and understood too clearly. _He would have this meeting done._

"I've been working on something. Writing." His head came around at that, surprised at the swift subject change.

"Writing?" His eyes swept her.

She rose and came to sit beside him in the empty leather chair, keeping her hands between her knees. Her body seemed small and drawn tight with tension.

"I have yes. Would you like to hear about it?" When she was still writing, she would talk out her books as she planned them, in the early stages. They would spend hours discussing motivation and character portraits.

_This hardly felt like the time for such things, but there he was._

"Of course." He leaned back in his seat, one hand rested on the armchair he sat in, the other opening and closing uselessly in his lap.

What he wanted was for her to be gone so he could nurse the pain in his chest and try to forget.

Elena looked to the rug, her eyes wide.

"It's a historical piece. I thought you'd be a good source for some of that." She hadn't looked up at him.

"My story is about a young man who defended his home during the Viking invasions of Britannia around 1066 A.D."

Elijah's head snapped up, turning to watch her as turmoil broke loose inside him. A dark flush worked under his skin and his heart stopped for two breaths before it roared to life again.

Elena still did not meet his gaze.

"The Vikings were brutal, destroying much of what they found. He fought with his family and against all odds, they were successful at defending their parcel of land in what was called Norfolk at the time. But everyone else around them, eventually fell." She appeared to study the pattern of the carpet as she went on.

"When William the Conqueror - the Viking ruler responsible for the invasions - was finally crowned King of England, in a rare effort at diplomacy, he folded the family into the crown. He made the young man's father an Earl. But the new king was also quietly taking ownership of the property by duplicity rather than force – because a member of the crown kept their property at the pleasure of the monarch. And the property, after all, sat adjacent to the site of the castle he wanted to build. A few weeks later, the new Earl was called for a visit to court in France. It was a trip he never returned from."

"So, now, the young man, as the eldest, was presumed to be the new Earl for a king he hated and that no one wanted. So he took his younger brother and the two of them set out across Europe toppling every stronghold they came across that William had set up. Whole villages were demolished and entire troops of William's men died because they fought under his flag. It was revenge for the loss of the young man's home and his father's death. The two were headed for France, where William lived, to destroy his whole family if possible. Along the way, the young man became known as a draugr to the Vikings because no defense stopped him, nothing could kill him and he only attacked at night."

She stopped and looked up then, her dark eyes expressionless. "Draugr…it means…"

"I know what it means, Elena." He interrupted her with a choked rasp. Draugr was a Norse word for the undead. _He could still hear the whispers of that word closing in around him, as he moved in the dark, intent on blood._

Elijah stood, because he couldn't stand to sit any more, under the guise of making himself a drink. His heart was in his throat, and he hoped a strong drink might wash it down again.

"Norman children were told stories of him by their mothers to keep them inside after the sun went down. He became a specter in children's nightmares for decades. "

She looked up and met his eyes then. Rather than finding judgement, he saw tenderness. The mahogany depths moved over him fondly, causing a riot behind his breastbone.

"Should I go on?" Her voice was low when she asked it.

"I would prefer not." The words were hard to force out around the lump in his throat and the pain in his chest. All he had feared was there in her words. Still behind the bar, he took the bottle and filled his glass again.

"How about I jump to the last chapter?" She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. He just watched her, not responding.

"The young man, who still looked like a young man, wasn't anymore. He'd seen too much. But he still found the courage to fall in love with a young American orphan girl. It took a bit of patience on his part, but she loved him too and they settled together into marriage."

"That part, you'll find, is inaccurate, if you're going for truth." He kept himself behind the bar, unable to move. His voice was still raspy and foreign to his ears.

The eyes that met his were lashed with pain. She swallowed hard before she spoke. "How so?"

"You'll have to write that he loved her from the beginning, before the bloodshed. That he knew her before he met her, which is hard to explain."

She stood and moved slowly toward him, placing a hand on the bar next to his. He bowed his head, seeing their hands together, focused with all of his might on that simple thing. The pain in his chest made him want to rub the heel of his hand over it, hoping for relief.

The hand he was watching so closely rose and covered his. His eyes came up to meet hers and something in him pushed to strip it all down to the bone for her.

"There's a detail you've missed that you should be aware of." It was his turn to turn his eyes to the floor. "The younger brother lost his humanity in the bloodshed of those nights, eventually. What had been a kind, innocent, eager to please young man became a monster that lived and breathed for blood. Any blood. He had been unable to handle the carnage. But the eldest held onto his through it all."

Elijah forced himself to meet her eyes frankly. "Who, do you think, is _the real_ monster between them?"

A small hand reached up to mold his rough jaw as the honey colored sparks in her eyes shone up at him. His jaw tightened at her touch, as he fought not to close his eyes and savor the moment one last time.

She shook her head at him, the gesture tight and swift. "I don't have an answer for that. I wasn't there. But I can tell you today that I'd have stood by your side through every battle given the chance – past and future."

"There is nothing anyone can tell me that will ever change that."

It was something. Elijah had hoped for so much more.

When he said nothing, she stepped out from behind the bar and headed for the front door. Stopping before she opened it, she spoke without looking back.

"I'll have the divorce papers drawn up in a few days and delivered to this address." With that, she was gone.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Damon was there when she stepped off the plane, waiting on the tarmac. She'd held herself together for the flight, rather than let the people who now worked for her see her fall apart. But when she looked down and saw him there, the tears flowed freely again as she stepped into his arms.

"I'm sorry." He whispered into her hair.

She nodded, unable to speak.

Elena didn't tell Damon the details, what was said, the truth she'd found. It felt like a betrayal and it was the last loving act she had to give to Elijah by keeping his history silent.

A week had passed for Elena since the day she saw Elijah for the last time. She'd been silent at first, coming back to her home, turning off her phone and disappearing into their bedroom to grieve privately. When the tears subsided, she reached out to Bonnie.

Her beautiful friend was all too well acquainted with heartbreak. Elena just wanted to just pour it all out, but still protect Elijah's privacy. Bonnie wouldn't push for details Elena couldn't give. Her friend would listen and commiserate.

Bonnie was sitting at Elena's kitchen counter mirroring Elena's pose. Both of them were seated on bar stools, leaned over, elbows propped; their heads together between them.

"I'm so sorry, honey." Bonnie said.

Elena drew a ragged sigh. "It'll be ok. I just feel shell shocked. Even after everything else that's happened, I just didn't see this coming for us…ever."

Bonnie sat up and shook her dark head, her long riotously curly hair moving around her. "I just can't believe he didn't say _anything_."

Elena shook her head and shrugged. "I told him I knew. I told him I didn't judge him. Offered him everything and he just looked at me." She laughed and it was a sad sound. "If I ever do anything like this again, remind me to fall in love with a bigmouth, okay?"

Elena was kidding though she didn't say it. There wouldn't be any more relationships for her. Not like that one. Not ever. Everyone around her seemed to think this would pass and she'd move on. But she wasn't sure she wanted to be opened up like that again. That kind of love cost. She was paying the price now.

Bonnie laughed and stood to wrap her arms around Elena's shoulders. "I promise. I'll remind you."

Elena smiled and stood, trying to shake it off.

"So….the other stuff, you took care of that?" Bonnie asked, searching Elena's face with concern.

"The lawyer? Yeah. That was awful. But it should be delivered to him in a week or so, considering the overseas thing." Divorce was a nightmare, even when it was relatively amiable.

"What about this place?" Bonnie looked around the all too familiar kitchen. "Will you stay here?"

"For now, I will. But I've been searching for something else. When I'm here alone, I feel like he's in every shadow, every corner. I'm not sure I'll get over that any time soon." She rubbed the heel of her hand between her breasts, at her breastbone. She'd acquired a pain there that she couldn't get to subside.

Four weeks later Elena stood looking in her mirror. She wore a white sheath dress that gathered at both shoulders. The hood of her matching white fur lined cloak draped loosely around hair that hung in ringlets over her shoulders. The cloak spread out behind her and touched the floor dramatically. A golden crown of ivy was nestled in her hair. In her costume she was Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. The flecks of glitter in her hair and on her skin finished off the ethereal look she was going for. It was Halloween and Milla's birthday. In a little over an hour she'd be joining everyone at Damon's home for a night of people, music and celebration. The crisp fall evening felt ripe with promise for the first time in a long while.

The sound of the doorbell brought her up short. _She wasn't expecting company._

Elijah breathed in hot fury and breathed it out again.

To end a long, painful trip to _his own_ home by standing on _his own_ porch and ringing _his own_ doorbell was the last insult in a long line. Every joint cried out as he moved. Every muscle sent pulses of pain down his long limbs. The agony at the back of his throat was an ever increasing drum of hoof beats that would overtake him, dismantle him in its rhythm and move on…eventually.

He knew the horror he had become. Just as his lovely wife had planned. She deserved to see the fruit of her labor. He wouldn't deny her that.

She had searched him out. Found some of his secrets, some of the things he would've spent all he had to hide. Now that she knew, she would destroy him. It was poetic really, one who couldn't die in battle, ended by a woman's treachery.

When the door was snatched open, she stole his breath too, along with everything else. Bits of glitter in her hair and on her skin became sparks of fire in the light, creating a multifaceted halo all around her. Dressed all in white and the face of an angel. That he would be undone by heavenly hands felt even more poetic.

He couldn't help but notice that she remained behind the threshold because he lacked an invitation…into his own home. Fury lashed him again as she failed to speak. _Had she expected he would just quietly go away to die?_

"Shielded by your threshold." Hot anger pulsed in every word as he spoke from the shadows. "I suppose you know why I'm here, then."

Elena only crossed her arms over her chest and watched him in silence. The time for words appeared to be done. But he still had _plenty _to say.

He'd purposely kept himself in darkness. As he said, "I thought you should see the work of your hands." he stepped into the light expecting to watch triumph light her eyes. He knew the picture he was, grey skin, frail limbs, hollow cheeks, lined face, and dusky sunken circles around his eyes.

He watched those brown eyes move over him in what looked like horror rather than triumph.

"Do you really hate me so much? That you'd scheme to destroy me?" He asked, betrayal burning through him like a flaming arrow through his chest. He took another step, intent on closer inspection, as he watched something flash in her eyes he didn't understand. Was that fear? Pity? But his legs rebelled and he stumbled. Elena moved swiftly to catch him, stepping beyond her threshold in the process, as she wrapped both small, but strong arms around his waist. His heart beat in his throat at her nearness, doubling his shame.

"I didn't…." Her voice trailed off as he looked down to meet her eyes. He knew everything. There was no denial.

"You did." He told her, cutting off the lie at its root. Still with her arms around him, she was nudging him gently toward the porch swing as a ripple of pain tore through him. He bit back a groan as he moved the way she was leading.

_She may be right, _he decided dimly_._ _Sitting would be better_, considering even his legs now wanted to betray him.

Elena helped him to settle onto the porch swing and he watched her sit and slide as far away from him as the furthest corner would allow. He knew he was a sharp contrast to the picture she was tonight, dressed as a member of the Heavenly Host.

"Not exactly appealing, is it?" He sneered bitterly, stung that she couldn't get far enough away from him. Or it would've been a sneer, if the pain hadn't stolen his breath mid-sentence.

She confused him again when she closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms gently around his lean chest. Her nearness, her scent, aching for things to be what they were, all converged and he closed his eyes, swallowed by loss. He already knew his anger was an imposter. _Its true name was Grief._

She turned and spoke into his chest, her face pressed to the white shirt that hung on him. "I don't know what's happened, Elijah. But I did not do this." She spoke the last sentence slowly, emphasizing one word at a time.

Elena had refused to fight with him. Rather than the accusations he expected, the loud voices; she was calm. His angry words bounced off of her, accusing him instead.

Common sense shut down too as he slowly, painfully, closed his arms around her. The pain struck like lightning and he shuddered with it. A guttural groan rose from him as his eyes closed in surrender to its power.

Elena moved around him. He could feel her. When her mouth covered his, his lips opened on a gasp. His eyes shot open, surprise locking him into stillness rather than the pain, this time. Her mouth sealed over his, he decided he would never understand her and he sank into what he expected would be the last time he kissed his beloved wife. The taste of her filled him, making his heart shudder in his chest. Coppery sweetness flooded him. Blood. Elena's blood filled his mouth. She was feeding him. His hands came up to her face without his knowledge and he shuddered again, this time with the power of her kiss and the taste of her blood. There, with her on his tongue, he would've sworn he heard his name in the rush of her heartbeat for only half a second before it was gone. The blood flow had stopped and hunger was now clawing at his mind, evidently, making him delusional.

"Damn. It heals too fast." He heard her mumble to herself as his eyes opened. He could only guess she had bitten her tongue.

She stood and put a hand on either side of his face, forcing him to meet her gaze.

"Wait. Here." She told him. "Promise me." It was a demand, but a gentle one, and the expression in her eyes confused him.

He only nodded weakly and closed his eyes again. He was tired now; too tired to fight and too tired to leave. Just…tired.

When Elena returned, the smell of fresh blood filled the air. He opened his eyes to find she was holding out a tall tumbler to him. After a false start, he took it, watching the broad tremor in his hand pitch the contents for a few seconds. Blood. His eyes came up to meet hers and found her watching him, their expression rimmed with concern. She waited to see if he had the strength to drink even. He swallowed and nodded wordlessly. Pride pushed him to drink rather than be fed like a child.

She sat beside him and he couldn't help but wonder at the picture they made. The horror and the angel, side by side, her smooth, lovely hand folded into one of his, grey with death and decay.

His mind whipped through possibilities while he drank wordlessly watching the skin of his hand begin to turn pink again. Elena told the truth. That was the only explanation. She wouldn't have gone to such trouble to only meet his need now. That made no sense. She had every advantage. If she had been responsible, she would've sat behind her threshold and watched him die.

The tumbler finally empty, she asked him with her eyes if she should get more and he refused. The last thing he needed was to be sick in front of her, too. She replaced it with a glass half filled with brandy. His favorite. He watched it swirl in the glass, shame rising up like a tide. He swallowed hard and took a drink as it answered the last burn in his throat.

But it _really could only_ have been her. Then again, he'd been wrong before….

His gaze locked on the last bronze sip still left in his glass, he said, "You really didn't."

"I would _never_ try to hurt you." Elena reached out and took his hand again.

He released a gush of breath he didn't know he'd been holding, escaping as a relieved sigh.

"Our blood shipments stopped three weeks ago, the day your divorce papers were delivered." Elijah admitted, turning his head to look at her, still steeled to find that she really was responsible somehow in the expression she gave. Instead, he watched her eyes widen in horror and her jaw go slack.

"And _you didn't call me_?" Elena's voice rose in alarm with a ragged gasp.

"Every solution I found, it appeared you were there to block me. Every hospital was completely depleted. All of our neighbors who were also customers, for two hundred miles in all directions, were moved, or gone. No one to barter with. The accounts we used and their history had been deleted like they never existed." He looked down at her again, this time, with chagrin. "I thought only you would have access like that. It looked like it could only be _you_." _And that she hated him with the same passion she'd once loved him. _ That was what he had believed. That had caused more wasting than hunger ever could, draining away his will to try.

By the time he'd seen there was no way to fix it, it had been too long. He would lose control and hurt someone. He couldn't, no matter how the thirst might claw at him, take a life again.

"I have no way to prove anything to you." She met his eyes frankly, and he saw truth reflected in velvet brown depths. "But I didn't do this. I'm sorry it happened, but it really wasn't me. And I'll fix it." She stood, heading back into the house.

He reached out to stop her, taking her hand as she passed. "Wait." He said, his voice low. He feared she would go in and refuse to come back out again, like she'd been when he arrived.

"I love you, Elena." He said the words to her back watching her shoulders straighten, because she had yet to turn around. She seemed locked where she was when he had touched her.

"You came before, told me your story, laid me bare and walked away. I didn't get the chance to say that to you. Everything else has changed. But that hasn't. It won't. " He started out with high hopes and his words faded to a whisper as he spoke because she still hadn't moved. Dropping her hand, he also dropped his eyes, sure that whatever he had to say, it wouldn't matter now.

She remained, though. Her body stock still.

A whisper rose from her. "You walked away."

"To save your life. It was no choice, really." Even if she wasn't with him; that she was still breathing meant everything. When he'd honestly believed she hated him; that was still true.

"But you _stayed_ away." Elijah heard the pain in her voice.

"He would've told you everything." Klaus had said as much, and laughed. And just as Klaus had predicted, it appeared Elena was young, fickle and would move on without him given a chance.

"I learned on my own. And I love you anyway."

His hand shot out again and this time he pulled her swiftly into his arms, landing her across his lap. "_That_ you waited to say until _now_?"

She squealed when he snatched her up, laughing until he covered her mouth with his and silenced the beautiful sound. Elijah kissed her, sinking into the secret places he'd missed. Elena, draped over his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and met him just as eagerly until she reared back.

"But I told you I would have followed you."

"A soldier's vow. For a cause, not a person." He could smile wistfully now.

"I wouldn't have followed you if I didn't love you."

"Then remind me not to send you off to war, little one." Elijah laughed because he couldn't help it. Such a simple thing, the place where their communication had broken down. Elijah had heard the promise of an ally while Elena had been pledging her heart.

A small hand came up to cover her mouth and she giggled. He stopped her laughter with his lips, grateful for the right to do that again.

He cradled her across his lap, as he had a thousand times, taking in the glitter in her hair, across her skin. She looked beautiful. He tucked her close, next to his heart.

"What are you thinking?" She asked him.

"About the contrast between us when I got here. How you couldn't get far enough away from me." It should've stung to say that, but he understood.

But Elena was shaking her head and leaned back to meet his eyes. "I wasn't trying to get away from you. I was trying not to make a fool of myself and wrap my arms around a husband who didn't want me. But you made that sound like you were in pain and I couldn't stay away. I hadn't ever seen your pain before and I hated it." Elijah remembered. She had sat at the end of the swing away from him and within a few seconds of sitting down, had slid over to wrap her arms around him.

"Didn't want you?" He repeated back to her, confused.

"That's what I thought. When we met in London. I thought you didn't want me." Her eyes were moving over his face, trying to understand him.

"And I thought you'd come to tell me you were moving on with…." He paused, thinking better of the idea of adding accusations to their peace. "someone else after what you'd learned about me." He admitted, his lips a white line with the remembered pain.

He'd expected her to do just that, move on.

Elena took his face between her hands and leveled those eyes at him again. "I'm guessing you thought there was something with Damon and I because I stayed at his place. He will only ever be my friend. I stayed there because Klaus had told me he had an open invitation into my home. I didn't feel safe."

Elijah's eyes widened. He'd not considered she might think that. He knew Klaus was with him and he got him as far away from Elena as possible. But she wouldn't have known that.

"I'm a fool again. I'm sorry." He shook his head, ashamed at what he'd been thinking.

Elena pressed her lips to his brow. "You. Only and always. How many times will I have to say that?"

"Until I get it, I suppose." He felt humbled. Thinking she was fickle. He shook his head at his foolishness.

The two of them froze as Elena's phone trilled from inside the house, her eyes going wide.

"Milla's party."

Elijah laughed, finally understanding. "Halloween. Of course. You look like an angel and I could hardly believe my eyes when you opened the door."

"You mean when you growled at me from the shadows?" She asked with a smile.

"I never _growl_." He straightened his spine, sitting up a little and raised a dignified brow at her.

Elena laughed, creaky screen door laughter from down deep. He didn't intend to, but he smiled along with her.

"You do." She insisted through her sputters. "Mostly when you're _very _angry. That's why I wouldn't argue with you. That and the fact I was terrified for you."

He pulled her closer to his chest. Both eyes closed at the remembered pain. "Would you have been angry if you thought I was trying to destroy you?"

Her laughter faded and she pulled tight, holding on with all her might, her arms around his neck. "I would have been broken. I really don't know, Elijah, what happened. I love you. It won't change for me, either. So anything like that will never be me. Okay?"

_Broken. Yes. He had been broken._ He nodded, his face turned into her hair.

"I should go answer them, or they'll send out a search party." They both heard her cell phone trill again.

"You aren't going to go inside and refuse to come out, are you?" He asked it with his eyes closed, his face still in her hair. It stung that he couldn't enter the home they had shared for so long, regardless of why.

"Why don't you just come with me?" She asked. With those simple words, there would be no more barrier. She stood, took his hand in hers and led him inside.

Elijah went to the sitting room and lit a fire in the fireplace while Elena made her calls. She had kept the kindling stacked, just as he left it. He was seated at the edge of the hearth watching the flames dance. She came to rest on her knees behind him, leaned on a shoulder.

"No search party?" He asked.

"Not tonight. No." One of her hands traced down his arm and took his hand, sending a quiet hum of sensation over his skin.

She turned it over in hers, pressing a kiss to the back of it tenderly. He moved and took her lips, thinking he could make better use of them.

She met him there, in that kiss, beat for beat. Two sides of the same heart moved together in harmony. He wasn't aware he was nudging her back, there on the hearth, as he kissed her until the two of them were laid together, heart to heart, breast to breast. Forgetting everything, the past and the pain, he was lost in her again.

His mouth against her throat, he said, "I have missed you." She trembled around him and her breath hitched in her chest.

She met his mouth with hers, kissing him again and spoke against his lips. "There are no words, sweetheart, for how much I have missed you."

"No more close calls." He said, pushing the bodice of her dress and what she wore under it aside and shaping her with his hand. Her back arched to meet him as she gasped, with her eyes closed, and she nodded in agreement.

Her hands came up, pushing his shirt up over his head and leaned up to press an open mouthed kiss to the center of his chest, making his heart stutter behind his breast.

She said, "No more secrets." He nodded and meant it. She could still turn him inside out with just a touch. He'd give her anything right now.

Elijah's heart felt so full he couldn't contain it. "I love you." He said the words as he pressed kisses to her face, her neck, and her shoulders. He reached around with deft hands and unzipped the dress she wore and unfastened her bra. Peeling the clothing away from her skin one inch at time, he repeated those words as he covered each exposed inch in earnest open mouthed kisses while she shook like a leaf in a storm. When he reached a breast, he drew the tip into his mouth and she sighed, the sweet, soft voice of abandon.

They made his hands shake, the sounds she made. Where her responses were gentle, his body's answer was a riot of need. And somehow, even then, she knew.

She pushed up and slid the rest of her clothes away, her hands moving quickly. He stood to join her, removing his pants and they met again, standing there on the hearth. She sank down and pulled him down over her, wrapping herself around him as they fused together. He sank into her and lost himself in wonder. A sound rose from his chest as they reached for their mutual goal and he realized there actually was another time he growled besides when he was very angry. When he told her so, she laughed her screen door laugh again and they rolled off the hearth onto the carpet together.

He was home. She was his home.

An hour later, in their bed, wrapped in comfort, she ran a hand along his jaw and frowned.

"What?" He asked her running a hand over his smooth jaw in confusion.

"I liked the shadowy whiskers. When I saw you in London." She admitted with a smile.

Elijah spent a great deal of time trying to avoid them. Now to find out her preferences leaned the other way made him smile broadly. "That was me unkempt and raw."

"You make raw look good, then. Because I wanted to take you down like a lion does an antelope." He laughed, wishing aloud that she had done just that. They might've both avoided a great deal of pain.

After a moment of silence he said, "I burned your divorce papers." He'd actually angrily burned one page at a time in the fire watching each be demolished by the flames.

She propped her chin on his chest and met his eyes. "That was me trying to be generous and setting you free."

"I'm better off bound to you."

"Something else we agree on." She told him with a warm smile.

He watched worry flicker across her eyes and asked with his what it was she was thinking about.

"I promise you I didn't try to hurt you." He pulled her up over his chest so they were heart to heart again.

"I know, my little one. I believe you." Now he'd have to find out who had. And why they had wanted him to believe she was behind it.

He also had Klaus to deal with. Elena smiled up at him and said she might have an idea for that.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Elena and Elijah stayed together in their bed, leaned against the headboard through the night.

Elena nestled under his arm, her head on his shoulder and both arms stretched front and back around his chest. She was asking all of the questions she had bitten back for so long.

"How many languages do you speak?" She'd seen him shift from French to Mandarin in a single day with customers as naturally as breathing. That had made her wonder. At the time, knowing his tendency to avoid questions about the past, she'd remained silent.

He looked into the distance, thinking hard for a minute before he said "Eleven. But not all of them are spoken anymore."

She smiled and shook her head in wonder at him.

He smiled back at her and shrugged. "Move to a new country and the language will come, given enough time."

"What about William? You set out to kill him and his family. But history shows he was king for a good long while after your campaign. I know you didn't lose. So what happened?"

Elijah drew a deep breath, his eyes darkening as he watched her. The shoulder under her head moved once in a shrug. "Niklaus lost his humanity. He became another person between one breath and the next. It was not something that had ever happened before. So I had no point of reference. All I knew was that it was more important to protect others from him and him from himself than revenge had ever been." Elena's eyes went wide. _That explained so much._ The time they travelled together and Elijah's tendency to follow his brother's lead rather than the other way around.

"And you blamed yourself." Elena finished for him.

He made a short strangled sound. "How could I not? It was my idea, my righteous anger."

"But you had no way of knowing that would happen." She ran a hand over his chest slowly, a caress and a comfort.

"And you hanging onto your humanity all that time, when no one else could. Why do you think that was possible?"

"You." Her face flushed and he smiled at her tenderly. "I had hope for the future. And your warmth and kindness in those dreams…. You wouldn't have loved a monster. You made me a better man even before you were born, little one." Her flush deepened while he chuckled at her.

Elena floundered for more questions to change the subject, feeling self-conscious.

"Okay, here's something I've wondered about." She grinned up at him. "How and when did you find that you didn't actually need a daylight ring anymore?" He wore them anyway, rather than give away a potential advantage to anyone, ever. But he could walk as freely in the sun as any human, something she had inherited from him with her own change.

Elijah shifted, sitting up against the headboard a little taller and pulled a pillow to his lap. She could see already that her question made him uncomfortable, but she waited.

"That's not a nice story, Elena." His voice was deeper, his dark eyes met hers and they were uncertain.

"Not everything you know about me is nice, either." She moved to sit up beside him, mirroring his position as she pulled the sheet up over her chest.

He paused, seeming to consider that before he took a deep breath and answered her, just as he'd promised.

"Around 600 years. I was tired, frustrated, depressed…." Elena gasped, seeing where this was going. She put both arms around his shoulders.

"Oh. It's okay." She told him against his bare shoulder. "I get it."

Elijah was humbled again by Elena. One of his lowest moments and all she needed was a few words to see so clearly. So little from him resulted in so much lovingkindness from her.

True to his word, he finished it for her. "I took it off and stepped into the sun. And nothing happened. I found out that day there would be no easy answers, no fast exits."

Elijah leaned over. Against her lips, his eyes closed, he said. "No more secrets." And he kissed her. "I didn't know it would be a relief to say these things aloud. You teach me a great deal, little one. Thank you."

When the sun came up, Elena headed out for a short run. She owed Damon the truth after all he'd done for her. Added to that, she'd been forced to back out of the party the night before without even an explanation.

Much too quickly she was standing on his porch. Damon opened the door holding an empty glass and smiled.

"Well, there you are! We missed you last night." He swung the door wide in welcome.

Elena stepped inside, closed it behind her and leaned against it.

"Sorry I missed Milla's party. But….." She drew a deep breath and braced impact. "he came back last night, Damon. I was right. And Elijah came home." For Elena, that simple statement was like finding the sunrise after a long, terrible night.

Rather than sharing Elena's joy, dark heat radiated off of Damon. His eyes went wide.

"And you _let_ him?" His voice was hard and deep, his head cocked to one side as he took a step toward her. "Why would you do that, Elena? Have you lost your damned mind?"

Damon's crystal blue eyes weren't anymore. They'd darkened to the color of storm clouds.

"It was Klaus at the heart of it. Elijah was protecting me. Protecting his past too, just like I suspected." Elena wouldn't go deeper than that. Usually she wouldn't talk about their relationship at all, but Damon had wiped away a million tears in the last few months. She felt she owed him an explanation of some kind.

Damon put a hand over his mouth as it hung open, just watching her. After a minute that hand went to the back of his neck and he became locked in tension, staring at the floor of his foyer.

"He walked away. He left you in tatters. What's to stop him doing it again, or worse? Can you really_ trust_ after that? Because I sure as hell don't." He hadn't looked up at her as he spoke, his voice husky.

"I know it was bad, Damon." She stepped in and wrapped both arms around his waist. "And you were there for me like no one else. You picked me up. Kept me safe. Put me back together again. I won't forget that. Or waste it. I promise."

Damon's tension released and he pulled her close, tucking her head under his chin.

"Elena, honey," He closed his eyes and smoothed her hair with a hand. "If he hurts you again, I swear I'll kill his wrinkled old ass."

Elena didn't laugh. She knew better. She'd heard that tone from Damon before and knew he meant every word. Holding on all the harder, she leaned up and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"I'm not asking you to trust _him_. Trust me. Okay?" She leaned back and met his eyes. They had faded to crystal blue again. Relieved, Elena stepped back into the hug.

He grumbled incoherently at her, so she knew he was softening.

"Marriage is complicated, Damon. I've learned from all this that loving someone as much as I do him is risky. But I have to try." She felt him nodding over her. It was going to be okay. Well, maybe not okay, but Damon understood her, at least.

An hour later Elena and Elijah were making the run to New York. Klaus and Elijah had chartered a flight from London only the day before. Klaus had taken an apartment and Elijah had set out to confront Elena. Klaus hadn't stopped feeding, enjoying the hunting and baffled by Elijah's refusal to feed. Without the food source, Elijah could only hope Klaus had refrained from killing, but there were no guarantees.

Klaus had abruptly lost his leverage with Elijah when Elena learned the truth and still loved him. Now all Klaus had left was a bargain struck between brothers. But it was still enough to leave Elijah bound to fulfill his promise. That wasn't something Elijah could just walk away from. Niklaus met his end of the bargain when he saved Elena's life. Ideally, Klaus releasing him from his promise would be best and most peaceful resolution. The question left was how to get him to do that.

He really didn't want to fight with his brother.

Elijah was braced for anything when he and Elena entered the apartment. He was not, however, prepared for her. He'd asked her what the idea she had for how to handle Klaus and she'd told him only to trust her.

As he closed the large wooden door to the new apartment behind them, Elena turned and met his eyes.

"Do you remember the lion and the antelope?" She asked and he saw the mischief in her eyes. He smiled and nodded. But he had no idea what that had to do with their confrontation with Klaus.

Elena, catching him off guard, pushed him hard against the door and leapt at him. Wrapping one leg around his waist, she climbed him like a tree, bracing one arm behind his neck as she kissed him. Her other hand moved swiftly through his hair and down over his jaw.

After half a breath, he sank wordlessly into the kiss, pulling her hard against his chest as the heat rose swiftly between them.

_Now this is a mauling_, he thought.

Dimly Elijah heard footsteps that came around the end of the hall and stopped suddenly. He picked up Klaus' scent as Elena also must have.

There was a loud sound of throat clearing and Elena, still perched high and over him, leaned back, smiled at Elijah with warm eyes and dropped gracefully back to the ground. She turned without a word and wandered into the sitting room.

Niklaus was standing at the end of the hall watching them with a one brow high, his blue eyes narrowed.

"I take it your meeting went well." Klaus' irritation rung in every word.

Elijah straightened everything. His hair, his coat, his spine and cleared his throat. He was grateful for the practice he'd had a wiping all expression from his face or he might've burst out laughing. He now understood Elena's plan and decided it just might work. _At the very least it would be entertaining._

"Very.", was all Elijah said, agreeing with Klaus' statement.

"Will she and I be having a little talk, then?" It was Klaus' threat to tell Elena everything.

Elena stepped around the corner at just that moment, arms crossed over her chest.

"That won't be necessary. I already know." She smiled warmly at Klaus. "So, he and I are a matching set. Where he goes, I go."

Klaus' eyes went wide. His gaze swung to Elijah to confirm. Elijah only smiled and shrugged as he moved past them both down a long hall and into the sitting room. He settled into one of the leather armchairs.

Once he was seated, Elena followed and perched on one arm of the chair and propped her legs on the other arm. She leaned down and kissed Elijah again.

Klaus followed, sitting on the couch to watch them thoughtfully. After a moment, he cleared his throat to interrupt them again and said, "A shipment arrived this morning." The statement sounded like a question.

Elena answered him, not taking warm eyes off Elijah. "Good. I expedited it. I'm glad they moved so fast. I don't know who's responsible, but I'll find out. I've got our best programmer tracing it now."

Elijah's hands had come to rest on one of Elena's legs as it stretched out spanning the distance between the chair arms. Elena took one of his hands in hers and said quietly, "Which of those rooms is ours?" Her voice had deepened expressively.

Klaus grumbled in frustration and stood, storming down the hall.

Elena, looking after him said to Elijah, "Is he leaving?"

Elijah had to clear his throat again before he answered. "I'm not sure."

"If he leaves, you can track him, right? You're still bound to your promise until he releases you, so we just follow in a few hours then?" Her tone implied she had plans for them to be alone in the meantime.

Elijah had to choke down a laugh as he answered solemnly, "Yes."

Klaus made a louder grumble and could be heard from the hall. He said, "I release you, Elijah! You win, little sister." and the door slammed.

Elijah slapped a hand over his mouth and watched Elena disappear abruptly, leaving him blinking and trying not to roar with laughter.

As Klaus reached the sidewalk, Elena touched his shoulder and he turned, surprise in his eyes. She'd been moving as quickly as he did.

"Wait." She said quietly. Elena was thinking of Klaus as a younger, more innocent and fragile young man as Elijah had described him. That was a person she might never meet, but maybe he was still there, under the trappings. In disguise.

"This doesn't have to be about win or lose, you know." She met his hard blue eyes earnestly and watched them narrow on her.

"You call me "little sister" and mock me with it." She went on. "But it's also true and I've never been that to anyone else."

He turned, leaning on one of the light fixtures that lined the sidewalk outside the apartment. Klaus crossed his arms loosely. He just looked at her, but she'd evidently caught his interest.

"All I mean is that we value family. _You _are family." One of his eyebrows shot up at her words. But he still hadn't spoken.

Elijah loved his brother, even if he was a frustration. Watching him disappear might bring Elijah peace, for now. But in the long term there would be losses. What had happened proved that. If offering a truce might prevent damage, then Elena needed to at least try. Maybe treating Klaus like the person he used to be would be the answer. Maybe, just maybe, he'd rise to the occasion.

The alternative would be that he turned on them. Wasn't that inevitable anyway? This way, might prevent heartbreak before it came looking for them all again.

Elena stepped in slowly and slung one arm over Klaus' shoulder in a half hug. She moved carefully, intent on being non-threatening, but found his lean frame had pulled tight anyway, expecting the worst. After a few seconds, seeing it really _wasn't_ an attack, some of his tension released and a single cautious hand touched her back as he closed the embrace.

Still standing there, in the space between them, she said, "People who know me best say I'll fight with anyone. But I find that I _don't want to_ _fight with you_. I think it goes back to what I said to you before about refusing to do anything that would hurt him. I also think you don't want to fight with me, either. Possibly for the same reason. We both value Elijah. No obligations, no expectations. But…"she paused searching for the right words, "you're not alone if you don't want to be. He and I are right here."

"A hand of charity, then?" Klaus asked, derision in his voice. "Are you feeling generous _now_?" He was referring to the night she threatened him in the park. She'd told him that ending his life would be a gift and she wasn't feeling generous. _Klaus seemed to think there was a trap here._

"I am a little sister reaching out to my big brother." Elena answered him matter of fact as she stepped back. She looked up at Klaus and smiled. "I've not had one of those before, either. I like the idea. But I'll leave it up to you to decide what happens now."

Klaus studied her for another moment before he turned and disappeared again. Elena thought she'd seen something new in his eyes in that last speculative glance. Interest maybe? Or hope?

Elijah still had the same hand over his mouth and was still sitting in the chair she'd left him in. Tears of laughter were sparkling in his eyes and he watched Elena smile at him as she rounded the corner. He finally let go and tipped his head back to fill the room with his mirth.

"That was amazing." He told her, leaning forward in the chair trying to get a handle on himself.

"You wanted him to think…" He dissolved in sputters again just as he'd seen Elena do so many times.

Elena smiled, watching him quietly as she leaned against the wall at the room's entrance.

"that we're always..." He couldn't even finish it for laughing so hard. Elijah had not seen Klaus so uncomfortable probably ever and it had been beautiful to behold.

"I can't take responsibility for that." Elena told him, her smile growing wider.

Elijah drew a breath and looked at her. "I don't understand."

"_You're_ the one who failed to shave this morning. I've established what that does to me." Elena leapt at him like before and the chair tipped over backwards with both of them on it. Elijah failed to notice, but he did decide he might never shave again.

A few hours later at their home, Elena sat down slowly on their couch. Her face was white as she hung up the phone.

"What's wrong now?" Elijah, seeing her upset, met her on the couch, pulling her into his arms.

"That was Sidney. The programmer at the Richmond office I talked to this morning." She drew a ragged breath. "I asked him to trace the change to your and Klaus' accounts."

Her brown eyes were awash with tears as they met his. "All of it came from my IP address. Right here. Keystroke for keystroke, it looks like the commands came from me…passwords and everything." Liquid brown eyes clung to the floor, her horror apparent.

She put a hand over her mouth as she spoke under it. "I swear Elijah…" She gulped and couldn't go on.

Elijah pulled her tightly against his chest. "Hush. Hush now." She had started to sob quietly. "I believe you. _Every word_. I _know_ it wasn't you."

He leaned back, meeting her eyes as her body shook. "I knew sitting on that porch swing that it wasn't you. If it had been, you would've watched me die, little one. You had every advantage. So stop upsetting yourself." But she was shaking her head and pressed her forehead to his chest.

"I don't want to think about that either…" She shook with another sob, now holding onto his shirt with both hands and for dear life. "I nearly _lost you completely_. What if I had left early for that party? What if I'd stayed somewhere else? What if…." She gulped again, unable to go on.

After a minute she said "I might've come back to find you here. But gone. Or just never heard from you again." The quiet sobs came again.

"None of that happened, Elena. I'm right here." He told her, smoothing her hair as he spoke in soothing tones.

Elijah held her while her storm blew over, running hands over her hair or her back until she was calm again.

Red rimmed brown eyes met his after a few minutes.

"I've not faced the possibility of losing you like that before. It was bad enough to be separated from you for so long. But the idea of you not breathing the same air, at least being safe somewhere…" She drew a shuddering breath. "I get now why you're so protective. Why the risks I take sometimes upset you so much. I'm sorry. I'll do better. I promise."

He smiled sadly at her, nodding in understanding. "I cannot be reasonable about you, Elena. I lived for too long knowing what this world was like without you in it. The idea of going back to that is a nightmare to me."


	9. Epilogue

Epilogue

Elijah watched everything around him shift until he was sitting in his den and there was a fire lit. He sat in his favorite chair, holding a glass of brandy. The fire popped and danced. Elijah looked around and found Damon sitting on the edge of the small wooden coffee table near his chair.

Damon turned hard blue eyes on him. "You're dreaming. And I'm really here." His words were terse and he leaned forward slightly as he spoke, his head cocked to one side.

"What can I do for you, Damon?" Elijah was vaguely surprised to find Damon invading his dreams. He wouldn't have thought the younger vampire had the strength for such a task considering their differences in age and strength. The only explanation would be that this was Damon's gift. As Elijah's gift was tracking and Elena's was with manipulating magic.

"I want to show you something."

Elijah had no memory of walking up the steps to the bedroom he shared with Elena. The room was dark as he stepped in behind Damon. Elena was on the floor of their room, folded on her knees. Moonlight cast from the windows flowed over her, illuminating her in the midst of deep shadows. She was frozen.

"This is what I found the night you left her." With his words, the scene unfroze.

Elena's entire body shook with sobs. A wail came from her chest and filled the room with agony. She raised her eyes to the closet he had emptied, covered her mouth like she was trying to stop it. But the same lament filled the room again, just as loudly.

Elijah's heart quaked in his chest at the sound she made and his stomach turned painfully.

He watched another version of Damon come into the room, speaking softly to her. He picked her up, held her to his chest and turned from the room with a dark scowl on his face.

"She was still burning up with fever from the bite. Klaus' blood hadn't completed its work. But Elena insisted she had to see you, had to apologize for the fight you had." He lifted a hand at the empty closet, an eyebrow raised. "Elena found this instead."

Elijah found himself back in the seat in his living room with the fire popping again. Dark fury now filled the room. Damon had taken his place again on the coffee table's edge.

He leaned forward where he was seated and narrowed his blue eyes on Elijah.

"For some damnable reason, you are essential to her." Damon turned and looked at the fire. "I'll never understand it." He stood and took a step toward the fire, his back turned.

"She nearly gave her life for yours. That's not something I understand either." Elijah pointed out, putting to words the thing that still chewed at him about the whole affair.

Damon laughed and it was a bitter sound. "That one's easy. She would've done the same for any one of us she considers family."

Damon stood and stepped close. He leaned down, putting one hand on either side of Elijah's chair.

"Your brother is still wandering around somewhere. And your _whole family_ is a nightmare." Damon leaned in close. "I suggest _you_ find a way to handle family squabbles that doesn't involve causing Elena pain like that again." He stood, taking a step back. The wall with the fireplace fell away.

Damon spread his arms wide with another step and said, "Or we will find a way to end you." The space where the wall was opened up and people stood behind Damon. Jeremy, Ric, Bonnie with her eyes glowing and power popping from the ends of her hair, Caroline, Jack, Milla, Stefan. They all stood watching him, some with crossed arms, all wearing hard expressions.

Elijah understood they weren't really there. He also had a flash of what felt like insight.

"It was you." Elijah's eyes swept Damon. "The lost shipments. The deleted accounts." Elijah's eyes narrowed.

He watched a flash of something in Damon's eyes before it was gone. The onlookers faded and the fireplace appeared again. Damon crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head.

"I heard about that. No, I can't take credit for it. But I'd like to shake their hand. That was amazing. Think of the implications. You had three options." Damon ticked them off on his fingers with a warm smile. "Die quietly – my personal favorite. Kill and lose her respect – a close second. Or confront her. Either way it would be resolved. And Elena wins."

Elijah stood, moved close to Damon. When Elijah was within a breath of him, he said, through gritted teeth, "You think you've known and loved her longer and that gives you authority of some sort. But you haven't even gotten_ warm yet_." His voice deepened with the last sentence, Elijah's fury also making itself known.

"The company, the business I left her…..I considered it hers already. I started it _six decades ago_ because I knew her well enough _then_ to know she'd never want one of us that took innocent lives."

Damon's eyes went wide as Elijah watched that sink in. Elena was only in her early thirties. She hadn't been alive for sixty years.

He poked a single finger into Damon's chest. "How many _innocents did you kill_ in that first year you knew her?" Elijah's eyes swept Damon with disdain. "And you wonder why she didn't choose you?" He shook his head. "Do you know her at all?"

Damon's eyes flashed to red and he moved in just as close to Elijah, just as angry, just as threatening.

"Your love did this to her." There was an echo of Elena again, the voice of heartrending agony. "_You_ left her an _open, gaping wound_! So I suggest you DO. IT. BETTER!"

Elijah woke to the echoing slam of a distant door. Probably the sound of Damon leaving his dreamscape with his usual flash.

That sound though, it echoed in his head. The agony in that cry haunted him; just as it must've haunted Salvatore. He really couldn't blame Damon for his outrage, for feeling the need to threaten him. Elijah would've taken apart anyone that hurt her that much, no matter the reason.

He didn't like Damon Salvatore. He never would. _But now he respected him._

Elijah rolled over and pulled her sleeping form into his arms, holding her close. He pressed his lips to her eyes and her forehead.

After a moment, she stirred and warm brown eyes looked at him.

"Not sleeping again?" She laid a warm hand on his face.

"Monsters traipsing through my dreams." He told her with a smile.

"Well, that's new. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, little one. I just wanted to tell you that none of what happened was ever your fault. And I'm so very sorry that I caused you pain." He pulled her close and up over his chest. "I can't tell you how sorry I am."

"It's okay sweetheart. Long gone, now." She smiled up at him dreamily.

It wasn't though. He'd be hearing that agonized cry in his head for years to come. Like a child, all he had focused on the night he walked away was how much it was hurting him. He'd not considered what it might cost her. It had never occurred to him that he even had the power to hurt her so much. _Fool._

A final thought occurred to him.

"Elena," She leaned up to meet his eyes. "Did you tell anyone about the missing shipments? About what happened that brought me here on Halloween?"

She smiled, still sleepy and rested her head back against his shoulder. "No. You know I don't really talk about us."

Elijah's eyes narrowed as he absorbed that.


End file.
